PAST EXHIBITIONS 2026

A Fragile Earth brings together Martyn Lucas' work from recent years alongside one piece from 1986, made at the beginning of his practice. These works have sat quietly unseen until now, changing over time as Lucas considers what they mean, what they might signify, and what they might say to the viewer. More recently, Lucas has been starting his collages with our fragile earth in mind; beginning a conversation about our wounded landscape while drawing on his own experiences, memories and reflections to influence each piece.

The works are built from a collection of old art history books, found images and visual fragments that the artist has kept nearby over the years. Their making relies on trial and error, intuition, and the playful process of layering, moving and finding the right placement. Lucas' works don't set out with a concrete 'meaning'; instead, they allow something to emerge and invite us to notice what we see within them. The titles can offer clues to the sources, references or ideas within each collage.

There is an interesting parallel with the modern world of AI imagery. The beginnings of these works were already found within the world, then repurposed and reshaped into something new.

"Collage pulls together fragments from disparate sources, recycles and re-places them in new ways. What remains important for me, however, is the connection between idea and materials; the intimate engagement with physical stuff, and the playful dialogue between rational and intuitive thinking: the decisions involved in cutting out a tiny piece of coloured card or the suggestions made by a tree or hand removed from its original source; the pleasure of meaningless struggle and small acts of resistance."

Martyn Lucas

 An exhibition by Alison Timmins exploring AI, technology and us

Artist Alison Timmins presents Datafication, an exhibition exploring our changing relationship with artificial intelligence and the technology that increasingly shapes our everyday lives.

The exhibition brings together paintings, drawings and photographs, combining traditional artistic methods with AI-generated imagery. Through humour, curiosity and sometimes deliberately strange imagery, Timmins explores questions around trust, reality and human creativity, and what happens when we begin creating alongside machines. Datafication also draws parallels with the Victorian era, when new technologies transformed everyday life and creative practice, asking what we might learn from looking back as we navigate today's technological revolution

Hive Artists are delighted to announce our next group show for this mid-summer. 

Solstice is a mixed media exhibition with a fantastic variety of work from Hive's friends and colleagues. 

From sculpture and painting to photography this diverse show has something for everyone.

Mikk Murray is an artist and curator based in Sheffield who runs a studio and project space called Hedge. In the ‘No Place Art – Edition One | Materiality’ exhibition in 2025, Mikk won the first Hive Artists’ Solo Show Award. His vibrant  exhibition, ‘In the company of trees’ focuses on a deep connection to  nature and observations made when out walking, running or working outdoors.

Mikk regularly records his experiences through drawings which he then works from in his studio. Here, the drawings are repeated, patterns are found, studies made and paintings formed. Inspiration from ancient woodland, wildlife, allotment gardening and local travel usually appear at some stage of this process.

Mikk says,
‘A sketch whilst walking through woodland will spawn a series of drawings which then multiply, creating their own images. Eventually these evolve into the shapes, marks and patterns that make a painting’.

Mikk’s current practice is a journey to create new patterns and images, mainly through processes, reflection and adventure. As a keen birdwatcher, these latest studies are focused on the colour and changing of the seasons that are reflected in some birds’ breeding plumage.

His work is a meditation on belonging being both an exploration of how we find ourselves reflected in the land and how the land, in turn, holds us.

A new exhibition by Maggie Hargreaves. 

A collection of large-scale charcoal drawings, with photographs and recent plein air painted sketches. These 2D art objects relate a continuing interest in our relationship with the natural world, through a process driven practice.

A collection of artworks by Hive Artists and their friends.

We hope you enjoyed this first Winter Salon presented by the artists who run and support this group and a few of their many friends whose work, combined, has produced this eclectic show.

Including digital prints, sculptures, textile works, delicate etchings, pencil drawings and magnificent paintings, this exhibition truly represents the wonderful diversity and richness of the artists working in and around Bolton.

Featured in this first Winter Salon is artwork by:

Liam Ainscough

John Chaisty

Laurence Davey

Melissa Day

Steph Dermott

Neil Greenhalgh

Richard Hall

Monica Hamakami

Julie Levy

Ben Midlane

Dave Morgan

Bryn Richards

Kev Salisbury

Andy Smith

Tom Sutton

Alison Timmins

Esther Womack