On arrival at the exhibition you will given a grain of rice; this grain is you. As you walk around the exhibition you will discover a landscape of rice hills and mountains, each of which represents a different population or community. The rice hills and mountains tell stories from all over the world.

The exhibition is free and will be running from Friday 12th April – Sunday 21st April from 11am – 7pm on weekdays and 11am – 6pm at the weekend. More information can be found here.

It looks at the relationships with people, places, families and communities. The artists involved explore where it is they belong, looking at where they’re from, or the communities they’re involved in and aims to forge links between the cities and between the artistic communities of these places. The natural connections and overlaps are made within all the works and new opportunities develop.

Cross-overs, connections, ties and links can expose themselves at random moments.  Relationships can be born out of incidental meetings.

The curators Charlie Levine (UK) and Suvi Lehtinen (Sweden) also met at a random moment during the summer through a mutual friend and curatorial partner, and this is when the idea of the exhibition was born.

The exhibition took place in Stockholm in December and will launch on January 23rd at 5pm till 7pm at Trove in Birmingham and run Monday – Friday until 20th February.

Indigo Octagon present ‘If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words Then Why Can’t I Paint’ at The Works Gallery, 13th-23rd November. It’s the first exhibition by Indigo Octagon, a collective of Birmingham based artists, designers and makers. Featuring Chris Cowdrill, Hugh Marwood, Shaun Morris, Andrew Smith and Craig Underhill.

They are hosting a private view on Friday 16th November from 6-9pm, where you can meet the artists, watch a musical performance by artists Andy Smith and Shaun Morris (composed in response to the exhibition) and see local band Box Of Knives. The Works is quite a mystery to me (and it doesn’t have a website) but for a bit more information about the exhibition, check Indigo Octagon’s facebook for updates. It’s good to see new and unusual things cropping up, and I quite like the raw unpolished/fanzine-esque style of their exhibition programme.

8 workshops exploring body image and sexuality will culminate with a group exhibition at Ort. in Balsall Heath from the 19th September until the 2nd October. The project is only possible because of a successful crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs of the workshops. Although the target has just been reached there are still two days left to support the project at the Wefund page.

Tony Graffiti presents Keep Graffiti Real, Smoke Crack, Sign On… a graffiti exhibition at Green Street Arts. The exhibition launches on 14 October and will run through to 23 October.

Digbeth is Good says there’ll be…

…a house band, DJ Boogie Dave, Drop Beats Not Bombs along side DJ Rosko, as well as Emjay Ladie, DJ Punk N Ska with Justin Bond from Boogie Down Brum playing early rave and britpop.

…and I’m inclined to believe them.

And the creativity hasn’t been restricted to the classic etch-a-sketch picture, as artists have been actively encouraged to paint and take apart their red framed tablets to create something new.

All of the artworks will be displayed in a public exhibition between 1-16 October and the deadline for submissions is 5pm, 27 September 2011, so there’s still time to get etching. For details on how to get involved, contact learning@macarts.co.uk.

Painter Carolyn Blake‘s latest exhibition Sense of Place/ Sense of Space is currently on display at Cornwall Street Chambers until 25 February 2011.

Curated by Jessica Farnham, the exhibition looks for new ways of rendering the everyday experience, from time spent traveling to work to working in the garden or sightseeing; each situation is imagined according to the artist’s own vision.

This booklet/ poster has also been produced to accompany the exhibition, which is an interesting read…

Trans-essence is a group show by artists Lou Reed-Daunter, Caroline Pigden and Michelle Allen which opens at Solihull Gallery on 18 October, and running until 13 November.

The exhibition includes video, painting, sculpture and photography, and explores how the complex feelings of departure and sadness although initially intense are rarely permanent. The works are personal to the artists and offer an expression of their individual experiences of loss.

The opening night invites guests to meet the artists for a drink between 6.15pm – 7.30pm, and again for the Artist Talk and guided tour which will be held on Thursday 21 October from 6.15pm – 7.30pm.

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Academic Stewart Brown has produced an extensive set of prints in which he adopts and twists the words which constantly surround him, while combining this with his experiences of African buses, Caribbean carnival and postmodern Birmingham.

I live in Letterland, an illuminated Babel, beautiful, unsayable, meaningless, profound.

His current exhibition Babel is on display at The Drum until 30 November, with an Artist’s Talk on 28 October at 6pm, whereby he will present his work and critical studies of famous Jamaican and African literature.

If you are interested in purchasing any of his prints, contact Stewart on 0121 414 5127 or S.Brown@bham.ac.uk

Art of Ideas is a group exhibition curated by Matthew Collings and Matt Price, entitled ‘The Witching Hour’, which will be taking place in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Waterhall Gallery from 11 – 14 November.

The four day exhibition will explore darkness and the uncanny, featuring photography, painting, sculpture, printmaking, film and animation, from over 20 artists based in or hailing from the West Midlands.

The Art of Ideas publication is designed to encourage more people to start collecting contemporary art in the city and region. With its supernatural theme, The Witching Hour exhibition offers an opportunity for people who are interested in collecting art – whether individuals, businesses or arts institutions – to see and acquire works by leading and emerging artists from the West Midlands.

– Matt Price

Exhibiting artists include both internationally renowned names along with emerging talent, including: Hurvin Anderson, Richard Billingham, Graham Chorlton, Faye Claridge, Ravi Deepres, Tessa Farmer, Brian Griffin, Roger Hiorns, Harminder Singh Judge, Chris Keenan, Idris Khan, Karin Kihlberg / Reuben Henry, David Miller, Sally Payen, Juneau Projects, Ged Quinn, David Rowan, Liz Rowe, George Shaw, Toby de Silva, Gillian Wearing and Stuart Whipps.

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