Unit 2

That’s all folks! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!! Epigeal install shots coming soon (after we’ve slept for a week…) and future plans coming whenever we’ve made them. You’ll be the first to know if you get on the mailing list - the link is in our bio. Very best wishes to Anja @toughlovestleonards who has the keys and is starting the next chapter of the space. We’ll see you at the launch party! ✌️❤️

We are six months in! Time to share how it happened (spoiler: it took work, but with a business plan and good pals to help with the labour - ANYBODY could do this!)

Eternal Youth! A very special show, for so many reasons.  Matthew Stradling captured his subjects with tenderness and devotion - responding to their beauty and producing something beyond real, beyond portraiture - a kind of icon-making process. Matthew was the very first person to book a spot at Unit 2. He believed in the project and he saw what we saw - an opportunity for an ambitious show. Since we shook hands, he has worked his arse off to produce this incredible body of work. Knowing some context around him through his generous artist talk with Sadie Lee, his (three!) parties in the space, and his gorgeous community (including friend and collaborator Dom Agius), it’s easy to see how much he has given to his practice in the last year and that love is so felt in his work.  We are delighted to have been able to host Eternal Youth. Congrats Matthew and thanks to everyone who stopped by to enjoy the show. @stradling.matthew 💥

Magical Matrescence. A show of unignorable wonder. Curated by Hayley Reynolds-Maclean, four artists (including Hayley, plus Mimi Rose, Molly Ardanowski, and Emily Stevens) offered what they described as “a space for shared witness and vital conversation about this universal yet often unspoken human experience.” Not only did they deliver on this, but those lucky enough to visit over the Easter weekend were also invited in to the depths of complex, abstracted personal experiences - a place where motherhood is framed as a profound, miraculous rupture - a transformation as momentous as it is wild. The show did an excellent job of avoiding cliche and was a really interesting, nuanced reflection on this expansive topic. WHY IS MATRESCENCE NOT IN THE DICTIONARY THOUGH? If there is anything to be taken away from this exhibition it is how valuable it is to be able to put language to the experience of becoming a mother - whether visual language, or actual words. To name it is to know it, acknowledge it, and ultimately respect it. Matrescence Matrescence Matrescence Let’s say it more. Congratulations and thank you to Hayley, Mimi, Molly and Emily for this awesome and generous show! @_a_box_of_frogs @mimirose_art @mollyardanowski @emilyv_stevens

Opening TOMORROW! Eternal Youth is an exhibition of new paintings by Matthew Stradling that celebrates the image of youth. Youth has been an age-old trope in mythology, art and popular culture. The image of the young man at his coming of age has been used to symbolise love, hope, beauty, optimism, adventure, playfulness and also vulnerability. In this series of paintings, Matthew represents the subjects, as if they were flowers at the prime of their bloom, frozen in time on the canvas for perpetuity. The exhibition includes a series of photographs of Matthew by Dom Agius, charting the sixteen years of their friendship. These photographs reverse the artist/model relationshiP - with Matthew on the other side of the lens becoming the subject of Dom’s art. Join us to see this new collection and meet the wonderful Matthew - showing in St Leonards for the very first time. Opens Wednesday 8 April. 10% of all sales from the exhibition will be donated to St.Michael’s Hospice. Show continues for two weeks, with specially programmed events: Launch event Friday 10 April, 6-9pm Artist talk with Sadie Lee and DJ Dom Agius Sunday 12 April from 3pm Closing party Saturday 18 April, 6-9pm See you there! @stradling.matthew

🥁🥁🥁🥁 Join us for the FINAL SHOW AT UNIT 2! Our year-long tenancy is coming to an end and we are delighted to announce Epigeal: On the surface of the ground and under the sky. This exhibition features over 60 artists and celebrates art-making as a strange, beautiful, shared human experience. Launch: 24 April 6.30pm til late Continues: 25 and 26 April 11am-5pm The launch event and end-of-tenancy party will be held on the Friday night, with drinks, tunes and plant-based canapés from 6.30pm. Anja from @toughlovestleonards is going to be on the decks in a glorious passing of the baton moment - as Anja will be moving in once the gallery closes its doors for the last time. Come chat to her about what she has planned! All welcome to join the celebrations! Congratulations to all the selected artists and thank you to the hundreds of you who applied to the open call. We hope very much to see you there on the 24th and over the weekend. Let’s do this one last time!

Last weekend, spring officially sprung at Unit 2. The garden chairs were out, fresh-flower-colours were everywhere, and animals were found emerging from hibernation. Mew's show, A Chapel In Plastic Teeth, invited visitors into something akin to a village fete; ribbons, rosettes and the emblem of the Staffordshire Spaniels situating us firmly in the realm of playful British kitsch. Mew engages the factory as a central theme - physical rather than mechanical - and her works bear the witness marks of her labour. Her repetitious process is really felt and it's hard not to be blown away by the scale of the undertaking - a welcome antidote to the factory farmed objects and images that clutter every day life. The framing of the space as a chapel brought about a feeling of reverence, perhaps asking questions about our relationship to 'stuff'. Mew shared that the textile pieces were her first attempt at something like this - produced by her on a kid's sewing machine. How cool is that?! If you know Mew you know she's a beautiful force to be reckoned with, and if you don't, it's pretty apparent from this show. Massive congratulations @mew.welch and thanks to everyone who came down!

THIS WEEKEND! Join us on Good Friday for the opening of Matrescence - a group show of four artists exploring the physiological, societal and emotional situation of motherhood. #Matrescence is having a cultural moment. Not yet in the dictionary, the term was coined in the early seventies by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael, and picked up thirty years later by author Lucy Jones. Today there is a live campaign to get this word more widely recognised as a descriptor for the process of becoming a mother. When mothers have been made since the dawn of life on Earth, why don’t we have a word for that? This exhibition delves into the raw, multifaceted experience of motherhood; from the fervent hope of conception and the silent grief of loss, to the overwhelming, transformative reality of nurturing new life. Through textiles, painting and installation, emerging artists Hayley Reynolds-MacLean, Mimi Rose, Molly Ardanowski, and Emily Stevens offer a space for shared witness and vital conversation about this universal yet often unspoken human experience. Opening night: Friday 3 April 6pm - 9pm All welcome Continues: Saturday 4 April 11am - 6pm Sunday 5 April 11am - 4pm See you there!

Well... Did you fall for it? Gail's is not coming to St Leonards (thankfully) Instead, a local legend will be expanding her empire 🖤🤘🎶 Have you heard who it is yet? ____ St Leonards! We have an announcement! When Unit 2 closes in April we are delighted to share that Gail's will be replacing us! With all the rumours circulating, we've finally been given the go-ahead to publicise this much needed addition to our high street. Sourdough here we come! ❤️

Reflections on Displacement ✉️ We really enjoyed this group show. Featuring Reem Acason, Debbie Antonowicz, Vix Koch & Devon McCulloch, who met on their MA in Brighton, their work filled the space with subtle, personal contemplations on this expansive topic. The larger than life passport photo, immediately countered by the flight of a butterfly, set the scene beautifully. Returning for a second and third look after the packed private view was a must. This show was surprising. The idea of displacement globally, bodily, emotionally really gave space to consider the nuances. Huge congratulations to the artists - looking forward to seeing what you do next! ✨ @debbieantonowicz @devon_mcculloch_illustration @reemacason @vix_koch

TOOT TOOT! The Mew train is coming to town! You'd better get on board 🚂 This Friday we are excited to open the doors to A Chapel in Plastic Teeth, Mew's biggest solo show to date. Plastic teeth; something artificial standing in for natural, a symbol of consumption, repetition, and production. The exhibition queries how the handmade can imitate the factory while still holding life - exploring the chapel as a condition, something that people and objects pass through, a space of reverence and worship. Mew's signature punk aesthetic and bold multidisciplinary work will be taking over Unit 2 for one weekend only - make sure you get down there! Opening event: Friday 27 March, 6-9pm FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS Continues: Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 March, 11am-6pm P.S. Have you noticed that the poster shares a motif with the new @aircooled_music album? 👀👀 @mew.welch 🐆

OPEN CALL: EPIGEAL There’s just 10 days left to submit to our final open call at Unit 2! We have had some great submissions so far, but experience dictates that most submissions are yet to come (those of you who submit at midnight on the night of the deadline, I see you!) The theme is open - however reflections on art making as language, process, record and necessity is the jumping off point. Works of all mediums are welcome; we especially love showing ambitious and exciting new work. The post shows a few pieces from our previous open calls. We are a non-commercial space, take no commission on sales, and charge a £10-£20 participation fee if selected. There is a never a submission charge. The space is DIY and artist led to its core - powered by a non-profit business model - made possible by volunteers and great friends. This is the final show of our beautiful year-long tenure on London Road, St Leonards - so come and get involved for the last hurrah! The deadline is 30 March and the show opens 24 April; there will be a party! Head to unit2stleonards.com/open-call to read the full submission details (link also in bio) and we’ll look forward to seeing your works.