Vivienne Roberts Projects presents A Winter’s Tale, an exhibition of small-scale works by over 50 artists, bringing together painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, sculpture and mixed media.

At a time when images are so often encountered at speed and at a distance, these works ask us to come closer. Their intimate scale concentrates the gaze, allowing details, gestures and shifts of colour to become newly perceptible. A small work does not necessarily offer a smaller experience; its physical dimensions can instead create a more sustained and intimate encounter.

The title is taken from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, a play concerned with time, loss, transformation, revelation and the unexpected. It provides a loose frame for an exhibition in which contemplation and humour, silence and surprise can exist alongside one another.

Two passages from the play accompany the exhibition:

The Silence often of pure innocence
Persuades when speaking fails

and, in one of Shakespeare’s most famously abrupt stage directions:

Exit, pursued by a bear.

Together, they suggest something of the exhibition’s range. A Winter’s Tale is an invitation to look closely, to give small things time, and to remain open to what may emerge when we do.

Artists include: Melissa Alley, Pat Andrea, Laura Barnard, Lewis Baxter, Monika Beisner, Simon Burton, Sean Coates, Oliver Dorrell, Ann Dowker, Justine Formentelli, Nick Fox, Archie Franks, Andrew Graves, Cristina Ruiz Guiñazú, Sharon Hall, Annabelle d’Huart, Andrew Hewish, Phill Hopkins, Diane Howse, Xingxin Hu, Marie Hugo, Olivia Irvine, Louise Janin, Phil King, Sharon Leahy-Clark, Jo Lewis, Stephen Lewis, Louisa Longstaff Scales, Hannah Luxton, Alice Macdonald, Alix MacSweeney, Rosemary McGoldrick, Tahira Mandarino, Rebecca Meanley, Mali Morris RA, Paul Newman, Laurence Noga, Mary Norden, Anna van Oosterom, Pen Reid, Jon Ridge, Fiona G. Roberts, Sara Lee Roberts, Marie-Thérèse Ross, Ondrej Rypáček, Mathias Schauwecker, Sabrina Shah, Steve Sheasby, Elaine Speirs, Olivia Streeton, Ruth Helen Smith, Eugenie Vronskaya, Henry Ward, Mark Wright.