This summer, Open Open 2025: Wish You Were Here presents 47 works carefully selected from over 100 submissions by 60 artists. Together, these pieces explore the many ways we hold memory—tender, fragmented, joyful, and unresolved. They ask what it means to remember, and what it means to long for someone, something, or somewhere no longer close.


Each work offers its own reflection. In Circles, a five-minute video, brought me back to the moment a loved one first taught me how to live in this world—how to survive with softness and strength. Their care helped me learn how to face things alone. And even now, having adapted and moved forward, I still carry the sense that they are beside me.

Other works recall togetherness in different ways. In Party 1, the warmth and stillness of a shared moment made me think of dear friends once gathered around me—friends I now wonder about. Margaret and Common Threads speak gently of loss and familial bonds, weaving memory through fabric, touch, and time.

Many pieces awaken memory through place, landscape, or weather. Works such as Fields and Dreams, Milk Float, and Two of Us remind us how easily a certain sky, a passing cloud, or a quiet field can stir the presence of someone we miss. Whether through soft light, movement, or a familiar horizon, they bring absence into the present with tender clarity.

Some artists remember by recreating someone they’ve lost; others use a place or an object to revisit a feeling they once had with someone important. This exhibition holds all of these forms of remembrance—small and large, loud and quiet, individual and shared.


As a current MA Contemporary Curating student at Winchester School of Art(WSA), I’ve had the privilege of participating in every step of the curatorial process. From reviewing open call submissions to conversations about layout and lighting, this has been a project shaped with care and curiosity. With a still-learning but sincere perspective, I invite you to walk with us through this story-filled chapel.


I hope this exhibition helps you recall something or someone dear—and that here, in Andover this summer, you’ll create new memories too.


Wish you are all here, this time.


OPEN OPEN 2025 Exhibition: Wish You Were Here will be on display at The Chapel Gallery from Thursday 3 July until Saturday 26 July. The gallery is free to visit, and will be open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11am - 4pm. 


There will be awards given for the following:

Judge's Favourite
There will be a prize for Judge's Favourite, where the winner shall be awarded Solo Show at The Chapel Gallery in 2026 - this will be announced at the exhibition Private View (date to be announced).

People's Favourite
Visitors to the exhibition will be asked to cast their vote on their favourite artwork for the People's Favourite award - this will be announced at the end of the exhibition (after 26 July). Awarded free Associate Membership for 1 year with Chapel Arts Studios, includes Associates Summer Show and artist takeover at the Chapel.

Hampshire Artist
Local Hampshire based artists will have the opportunity to be awarded with a paid residency in Andover.



Last year, we enjoyed a passionate and contemporary artistic interpretation to the physical and metaphorical associations of Seeing Red and its symbolism in art and life. A colour of historical, spiritual, and political significance.


Here are some photographs of the gallery from last years' OPEN OPEN 2024, Seeing Red: