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.
Glad you are here.
Photo credit: Mary Alice Beal and Wanting Wang (One of our exhibiting artists in Open Open 2025)
OPEN OPEN 2025 Exhibition: Wish You Were Here runs 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.
Prizes are being awarded to three artists...
Judge's Favourite
Announced by curatorial intern Maggie Chiu (MA Contemporary
Curating, Winchester School of Art),
awarded to
Marian Obando
for her evocative animation
In Circles and the prize is
A Solo Exhibition at The Chapel Gallery in 2026.
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. Awarded free Associate Membership for 1 year with Chapel Arts Studios, includes Associates Summer Show and artist takeover at the Chapel.
TO BE ANNOUNCED after 26 July.
Hampshire Artist
Local Hampshire based artists will have the opportunity to be awarded with a paid residency in Andover.
Presented by Amanda Kane-Smith (Test Valley Arts Foundation),
awarded to
Liz Clifford, a CAS Associate Artist for her amazing artwork from the landscape
Empty Nest.
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. Find out more: OPEN OPEN 2024, Seeing Red.
