An exhibition of new work by emerging artists offers something for everyone.

TUCKED away in the corner of Gloucester Green Bus Station, yet another of Oxford’s best kept secrets, OVADA (Oxford Visual Arts Development Agency) is currently showcasing the best new work by emerging artists from the South East of England. Seventeen early career artists exhibit their work in Oxford Contemporary, OVADA’s first open submission exhibition.

Providing a fresh look at those that walk among us, the work spans a wide range of media, content and concerns.

The disparate joy of an open submission show means that Oxford Contemporary is able to offer something for everyone with works ranging from painting, drawing, photography, installation, sculpture, animation and sound.

Celebrating the diversity among both new and more established talent – with talent being the operative word in this sentence – the standard of work in this exhibition is exceptionally high; in fact, it is quite simply an exhibition not to be missed, and an awesome eye-opener to those artists beavering quietly away behind closed doors in studios close to you.

While several of the artists live and work in the city, others, such as Roy Brown in his work Spire, take their inspiration from it. Indeed, two of the exhibiting artists have created new work responding specifically to the site of the gallery within Gloucester Green Coach Station.

For instance, you can gaze out of the window on to the buses below as you become absorbed by Tom Davis’ Bus Stop, a work exploring notions of travel around Oxford, with you, the visitor, invited to depart on audio journeys on a number of the city’s bus routes.

Alternatively, surveying life outside of the gallery, James Winnett presents a voyeuristic multi-layered installation comprising of artefacts and technological devices that portray an uneasy sense of an absent character with an eerily elevated interest in the day-to-day happenings around him.

Also dealing with voyeurism, Paula Lucido’s work comprises two short films, Mostro and Bambola. Lucido’s work explores the visual pleasure, the underlying sexuality and sexual repression played out and sited in visual culture.

Clare Johnson’s works on paper, My Parents Told Me to Stay Calm, are intimate both in content and nature. Exploring personal illness and anxieties, her work is much more than art therapy, but a delicate, illustrative analysis of vulnerability, fear and the looming dangers of life both physical and metaphorical.

A mixed-media installation, The Shrine to the Devils Tower, by Matt Clark, is a fantastic piece of work about the curious world of compulsion and obsession.

For art enthusiasts, and in particular those keen to support fresh and emerging local talent, this really is a must-see show. The exhibition continues until March 21.

Artists Include: Natalie Baker, Roy Brown, Matt Clark, Tom Davis, Jezella Garner, Nathalie Guinamard, Kate Hince, Clare Johnson, Kirsten Linning, Paula Lucido, Hania Stella-Sawicka, David Theobald, Kim Thornton, Jane Wafer, John Walter, Daniel Wilkins & James Winnett 01865 201782 info@ovada.org.uk / www.ovada.org.uk FREE EVENT: Saturday, February 28 at 2pm Join the artists and a special guest speaker for an informal exhibition tour and discussion about their practice.