Shape

Artist and friend of Shape Jess Starns @jess_starns is curating an exhibition at @johnhansardgallery as part of the @dashdisabilityarts Future Curators Programme, and now you can get involved! 🚨 They are seeking Expressions of Interest from disabled artists living and working within a 40-mile distance to John Hansard Gallery who are interested in collaborating with Occupational Therapy and Engineering students from @uni_southampton . This is an opportunity for one artist to make or adapt tools to support their artistic practice. The creations will be displayed in the exhibition curated by Jess. Artist fee: £2,000 (including up to four meetings with students), plus travel expenses, access costs and materials budget to be defined. Artists are invited to attend an Information Session on Monday 11 May in person or online to find out more about the opportunity before applying. Deadline for applications: Monday 25 May 2026 Link in bio for more information and how to apply 🔗 Future Curators is a residency programme for Disabled curators working within mainstream visual arts institutions. Grounded in disability justice, the programme was founded by @dashdisabilityarts Description: Photograph of the front of John Hansard Gallery - a glass facade faces us, on the corner of a pale brick building. Over the image, white text reads 'Open call for disabled artists'

Shape are proudly supporting @dyspla_festival 's ongoing exhibition '§1NDA - a neurodivergent aesthetic' at The Stephen Lawrence Gallery @uoggalleries in Greenwich. The exhibition is open Tuesday - Saturday until 2 May 2026, with a relaxed private view taking place TOMORROW 2-5pm! Alongside the show, which aims to showcase the intersectionality of contemporary art and disability aesthetics, is a programme free of talks 🗓️: • Thursday 30 April, 11am - 2pm, artists Louise Hayward & Lennie Varvarides talk and screening • Friday 1 May, 11.30am - 12.30pm, artist Benedict Phillips performance and talk You can book your free tickets now via the link in our bio 🔗 The exhibition includes a powerful retrospective of over 100 digital artefacts of work made by neurodivergent artists, as well as a large body of original works by DYSPLA. "We are told that neurodivergent people think differently. But do neurodivergent artists create differently? Do they have a defined neurodivergent aesthetic?" Description: Photograph of a sculpture, which appears to be a 3D printed representation of a human face, captured through movement - meaning there are at least two full replications showing the face in different angles. The work is contained within a metal framed box.

And just like that....we've reached the fourth and final episode of The Art of Blindness - a brand new podcast mini series from our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award winner, artist David Johnson @davidjohnsoninsights You can listen to episode four - Blind Aesthetics - wherever you get your podcasts 🎧 or head to the link to our site in our bio, where you'll also find episode transcripts In the final episode of David's podcast series, he reflects on his own artwork and its influences, establishing his definition of 'blind aesthetics'. Discussing this with his assistant Emma Dickson @emma_dickson_art , David also considers the importance of collaboration to this way of working. This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray and commissioned as part of the Adam Reynolds Award. The Shape Arts Podcast visual identity was created by @gracefairley David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. Description: 1 minute 35 second captioned video. Behind the captions, we cycle through three photographs - firstly a portrait of David, working in his studio; then of an artwork hung on a wall, resembling the reflection you'd find in a mirror - but of David, made of puzzle pieces; and finally of a large outdoor installation of a picnic table, with a woman - 3D printed - sat down. David and the real woman herself are sat next to the model. At the end, yellow captions on a purple-blue background are accompanied by illustrated yellow stars.

More success for our 2023 Adam Reynolds Award animations - this time, Ernie Maltby's @twinklywinky Vyhod/Exit has not only been selected for @folkestonefilmfest but has also been nominated in the 'Best Experimental and Visual Art' category 🎉 We're so thrilled that these works are continuing to reach new audiences and their makers are being recognised for the talent, innovation and creativity that went into them. You can watch Vyhod/Exit as part of the festival this weekend at Silver Screen cinema - you can get your Festival Pass via the link in our bio. Vyhod/Exit is a surreal and kaleidoscopic meander through strained memories of prevailing state complicity. Reflecting on growing up in Russia, ambivalence & grief surrounding home and healthcare enmesh in echoes of planned negligence, conditioned immunity to war, and erasure of communities. Scavenged materials, whirring scraps of machinery and interrogatory lighting are forged into life in corners of domesticity against a boiling musical score to create a modern fairytale. You can also head to the link in our bio now 🔗 to watch the film in full (with or without AD) as well as learn more about the project and our Making Of resources! Description: A still from the stop motion animation, capturing the view from behind of an older woman sitting at a desk in front of a relatively outdated, heavy computer screen. On the screen, we find she is playing a game of solitaire. The still has been superimposed with the festival nomination laurel, reading 'Nominee Folkestone Film Festival 2026'.

🚨 Out today: Episode three of David Johnson's @davidjohnsoninsights new podcast series The Art of Blindness! If you haven't yet, listen back to episodes one and two first - link in bio 🔗 In episode three - Reimagining the Imagination - our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award Winner David Johnson chats to Dr Kevin Hunt, Nottingham School of Art and Design, about our mental lives, our consciousness and our thoughts - the link between our sensory perception of the world and the way we understand that world. Is there really such a thing as 'the mind's eye'? Listen now via the link in our bio (or wherever you get your podcasts!) Transcripts for each episode can be found on our website. This exciting new project will span four episodes, in which David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray and commissioned as part of the Adam Reynolds Award. The Shape Arts Podcast visual identity was created by @gracefairley David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of ⁠⁠Beyond the Visual⁠⁠ at @henrymooreinstitute Leeds - on until 19 April 2026. Video description: 2 minutes 40 seconds captioned video. We cycle through photographs behind the captions. First, a photo of David's work, hanging on the wall - a disjointed self portrait composed of puzzle pieces. Then we find a couple of photos of paintings by Stuart Davis, which the speakers discuss. The rest of the photos are more images of David's work - sculptures of hands, a red mannequin in a white pipe cage, an installation shot of an exhibition. At the end, yellow captions on a purple-blue background are accompanied by illustrated yellow stars.

What is the point of a blind art practice? 🎨 In episode two of The Art of Blindness - a brand new podcast series from 2025's Adam Reynolds Award winner artist David Johnson @davidjohnsoninsights - we hear from creative practitioners and audio describers Harry Baxter @harrybaxterart and Joseph Rizzo Naudi @joeraudi Catching up at @tate Britain to discuss their approaches to audio describing art, David asks Harry and Joseph about their process, experience, and the innate creativity of using language to recreate visual experience. Episodes one and two of The Art of Blindness are available now, wherever you get your podcasts 🎧 (or via the link in our bio, where you'll also find transcripts 🔗) This exciting new project will span four episodes, in which David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray and commissioned as part of the Adam Reynolds Award. The Shape Arts Podcast visual identity was created by @gracefairley David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of ⁠⁠Beyond the Visual⁠⁠ at @henrymooreinstitute Leeds - on until 19 April 2026. Description: 1 minute 46 second captioned video. We cycle through three photos behind the captions - the first of David, installing a large public artwork on a grassy verge. The second of Joseph, speaking into a microphone in front of a small audience. And the last of Harry, audio describing a painting on the wall beside him that is part of an exhibition. At the end, yellow captions on a purple-blue background are accompanied by illustrated yellow stars.

Have you listened to our latest podcast series yet? 🎧 Episodes 1 and 2 of the brand new series The Art of Blindness, available wherever you get your podcasts (or via the link in bio 🔗) This exciting new project from 2025's Adam Reynolds Award winner David Johnson @davidjohnsoninsights will span four episodes, in which David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art. In episode one - The Lived Experience - we join David on a sonically textured walk around his hometown of Hitchin as he paints a picture of his everyday sensory encounters. Transcripts for each episode can be found on our website. Make sure to follow the podcast to be notified when episodes 3 and 4 drop in the coming weeks! This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray and commissioned as part of the Adam Reynolds Award. The Shape Arts Podcast visual identity was created by @gracefairley David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of ⁠⁠Beyond the Visual⁠⁠ at @henrymooreinstitute Leeds - on until 19 April 2026. Description: 1 minute 12 second captioned video. Black on yellow captions appear over a cycle of three photos - the first a portrait of David, the second two are pictures of his artwork which is made of 2 life size 3D printed versions of himself, one walking with his cane, the other sat on a chair with his cane, wearing a shiny red hat. At the end, yellow captions on a purple-blue background are accompanied by illustrated yellow stars.

More success for 2023's Adam Reynolds Awardee James Lake @jameslakesculpture and his Shape-commissioned film Another Day as it heads to Coventry Phoenix Film Festival @cpffestival this April - where it's also been nominated for (another) award! 🔥 The film will be screened as part of the festival (16th and 18th of April) at Square One Cinema, Coventry. For more info and to book your visit, head to the link in our bio 🔗 In 2023, James was awarded our flagship #AdamReynoldsAward - a £10k bursary and creative development opportunity we offer one mid-career disabled artist each year. Over the course of the year, working closely with our friends at @hotknifedigitalmedia , James crafted something beautiful, captivating, and utterly new: a digital animation that brings his cardboard sculptural practice to life through narrative storytelling. The animation marks a significant progression in Lake’s artistic practice as well as the latest in a series of creative projects produced by Shape Arts and Hot Knife Digital Media. The original soundtrack for Another Day was crafted by @nicholasfaris 🎶 Description: a still from the animation, showing a dimly lit entrance to a building, into which a shadowy figure - hood up, using crutches, carrying a shopping bag - walks. Overlaid is a white festival laurel reading 'Official Selection Coventry Phoenix Film Festival 2026'.

🎧 Listen now: episodes 1 and 2 of the brand new series The Art of Blindness, available wherever you get your podcasts (or via the link in bio 🔗) This exciting new project from 2025's Adam Reynolds Award winner David Johnson @davidjohnsoninsights will span four episodes, in which David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art. In episode one - The Lived Experience - we join David on a sonically textured walk around his hometown of Hitchin as he paints a picture of his everyday sensory encounters. Episode two - Audio Description - features a conversation between David and creative practitioners @harrybaxterart and @joeraudi at Tate Britain who discuss their approaches to audio describing art. Transcripts for each episode can be found on our website. Make sure to follow the podcast to be notified when episodes 3 and 4 drop in the coming weeks! This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray and commissioned as part of the Adam Reynolds Award. The Shape Arts Podcast visual identity was created by @gracefairley David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of ⁠⁠Beyond the Visual⁠⁠ at @henrymooreinstitute Leeds - on until 19 April 2026. Video description: 1 minute 44 second captioned video. Behind the captions, we cycle through 6 photos of David and/or his artwork, which fade in and out: a wall-hung work comprised of a jigsaw ensemble that depicts a distorted reflection of the artist; a Braille-embossed sheet of paper; David with his work Sanctuary Cafe - a 3D printed woman at a picnic table - joined by the woman the work is based on; a 3D model of David himself, sat on a chair holding his cane, wearing a red hat; and 2 photos of David making new works - in the studio and out in public.

More success for 2023's Adam Reynolds Award winner James Lake @jameslakesculpture as his Shape-commissioned animated film Another Day has not only been selected for @oxford_shorts but it's been nominated for Best Animation! 🎉 You can attend the festival in person 9-12 April at St John's College, University of Oxford. James' film will be screened as part of the 'Animal Crackers' series on Saturday morning. We can't wait for more people to get to enjoy this brilliant film, and we'll be crossing our fingers for a win! You can watch Another Day on our website now - with or without audio description - link in bio 🔗 In 2023, James was awarded our flagship #AdamReynoldsAward - a £10k bursary and creative development opportunity we offer one mid-career disabled artist each year. Over the course of the year, working closely with our friends at @hotknifedigitalmedia , James crafted something beautiful, captivating, and utterly new: a digital animation that brings his cardboard sculptural practice to life through narrative storytelling. The animation marks a significant progression in Lake’s artistic practice as well as the latest in a series of creative projects produced by Shape Arts and Hot Knife Digital Media. The original soundtrack for Another Day was crafted by @nicholasfaris 🎶 Description: A still from the animation showing the character based on James' likeness, except seemingly constructed from cardboard. He looks to the side, to something out of frame, and appears a bit weary. A bright office-style light illuminates the room behind him, though much of it is out of shot. Over the still, a white festival award nominee laurel for Oxford Shots is superimposed.

🚨 Coming this Friday 27 March! 🚨 The Art of Blindness is a brand new mini series of the Shape Arts Podcast from blind artist David Johnson @davidjohnsoninsights commissioned as part of the 2025 Adam Reynolds Award programme. Fresh from exhibiting as part of Beyond the Visual at @henrymooreinstitute , David, the 2025 ARA Winner, invites us into his lived experience of blindness and his creative practice. He asks: What is it like to be a blind person in the world, and what is the point of a blind art practice? Through sonic ambles with David, interviews and reflection, this four part series frames blindness as a generative starting point for creativity. Episodes one and two - The Lived Experience and Audio Description - will be available from Friday 27 March 2026, on our website and wherever you get your podcasts 🎧 In these first episodes, you can look forward to accompanying David on walks around his hometown, Hitchin, and hearing @joeraudi and @harrybaxterart discuss their approaches to audio describing art. All episodes will be accompanied by transcripts, including sound description where relevant, available on our website. Don't forget: the Shape Arts Podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts - so why not catch up with our previous episodes now? 🔗 Link in bio. The Art of Blindness was commissioned by Shape and produced by Ian Rattray. Video description: captioned video of 1 minute 19 secs duration. A background photograph of David's work is present while he speaks. It is an oval shaped piece mounted on a wall, comprised of jigsaw pieces which form a slightly distorted 'reflection' of David - as though each is a mirror positioned slightly differently, reflecting back in disjointed angles and mismatched perspectives. The captions are written in black on yellow rectangles. At the end of the video, a purple background dotted with hand illustrated yellow stars form a background for further captions. The video ends with a short animation of a pink old-fashioned microphone, the same stars, and Shape Arts all swaying on screen - the Shape Arts Podcast branding.

It is with immense pride we share the news that Ernie Maltby @twinklywinky received the Best Animation Award at @ottawafilmaward for Vyhod/Exit! 🎉 Ernie's film was commissioned by Shape back in 2023 as part of our Adam Reynolds Award Shortlist programme, in which three artists were invited to create new animations under the title 'Paradise, Lost.' To celebrate the occasion, we're sharing some never-before-seen behind the scenes footage, documenting how Ernie made their award winning animation. This video joins our wider series of 'Making Of' content, all of which is available to browse on our website and YouTube channel. Vyhod/Exit is a surreal and kaleidoscopic meander through strained memories of prevailing state complicity. Reflecting on growing up in Russia, ambivalence & grief surrounding home and healthcare enmesh in echoes of planned negligence, conditioned immunity to war, and erasure of communities. Scavenged materials, whirring scraps of machinery and interrogatory lighting are forged into life in corners of domesticity against a boiling musical score to create a modern fairytale. Head to the link in our bio now 🔗 to watch the film in full (with or without AD) as well as learn more about the project and our Making Of resources! Description: Narrated film of 3mins 11 seconds duration. The film starts with Ernie's name in yellow, and an award winner laurel from Ottawa Film Award superimposed on a film still. We cycle through interwoven clips of the animation and clips of the making process - stop motion techniques, different rigs that Ernie built for filming from above and using layered glass panes for background and foreground effects, how they set up the lighting, and drafts of the storyboards as simple sketches. We also meet their friend Florence as they experiment with different sound making techniques. The clips broadly mirror what Ernie is describing, their speech is also captioned.