April Fools’ Day has been and gone.
We can move on from hoaxing and trickery, hopefully with our dignities still intact.
Now is the time to get on with the real work – instinctively deep cleaning our houses and homes in anticipation of the coming of spring (really, it’s just around the corner – it must be!), and working our ways through the leftover chocolate eggs that we didn’t have the stomach to consume at the weekend.
If you can find a gap in this busy schedule, and I recommend you try, then there are some fantastic arts events and exhibitions going on in the city this month.
Here are a few to get you started.
York Open Studios
Artists fling open their studios once again, giving us all the chance to meet them and enjoy their work, as York Open Studios returns.
Taking part this year are artists working in disciplines including ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, wood-carving, and multi-media.
There are special exhibitions and workshops too. This year, the event runs on April 14, 15, 21 and 22 from 10am-5pm – more here.
Print Stuff @ The De Grey Rooms
Last year a collection of York-based friends, collaborators and makers got together to host the city’s first all-encompassing celebration of printed art in all its forms.
The ambitious project was a great success, and this month we’re excited to see Print Stuff return for a second year.
This time the fair will be even bigger, with over 50 exhibitors filling the De Grey Rooms and even spilling out into other venues: the Fossgate Social and Kiosk Project Space, also on Fossgate.
From textile goods to zines and comics, the fair specialises in all independent printed matter, championing the authentic, the handmade, the unique and supporting emerging and established talent.
The main event takes place on Saturday 28 April, 10 AM – 5 PM, with associated events going on throughout the month.
White Cube 1 @ Kunsthuis
White Cube is a series of 5 exhibitions that will show at Kunsthuis gallery throughout the year featuring established UK and international artists.
The first show, informatively titled White Cube 1, welcomes the work of Rowena Comrie, a dramatic and emotive painter practising in Scotland for the past three decades.
Also featured in the exhibition is the work of Richard Thornton, a professional sculptor with 25 years of experience working on site-specific commissions for private, local authority and individual clients.
Catch his stainless steel and bronze creations alongside Comrie’s harmonious colour arrangements until 13 May.
Into The Garden @ Lotte Inch
Lotte Inch celebrates Spring this month with a new solo exhibition from artist Tom Wood.
This artist, perhaps better known for his portraits including HRH Prince of Wales, Alan Bennett and Professor Lord Winston, has ventured out of the studio for these latest works and, as the title suggests, has gone Into the Garden.
An accident of chance led him to this new creative venture, after a heating problem with his regular studio drove him to set up shop in his conservatory.
The resultant collection of scenes are nothing short of enchanting, featuring a softer palette than his usual style and swapping famous figures for even more recognisable garden birds.
The exhibition opens on Friday 6 April and runs until 12 May.
A Sense of Place @ Blue Tree
You’ll find a trio of inspiring landscape painters at Blue Tree Gallery this month, where the work of Suffolk born Deborah Burrow exhibits alongside two West Yorkshire artists: Douglas Hill and Julia Poulton.
Each artist brings their own unique style and technique to the exhibition, A Sense of Place, from the abstract and etherial to the tranquility of plein air painting.
Expect to find scenes from across the UK, with all its varying landscapes and emotive diversity.
The show ends on 2nd June, so you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the British landscape in paint before the promise of Summer in real-time tempts you out of the galleries and into the open air.
Robert Oxley @ Castle Gallery
This month Castle Gallery will be opening a new exhibition, Instinct, by pop surrealism artist, Robert Oxley.
The exhibition opens with a meet the artist event on Saturday 28 April, 1 PM – 3 PM.
Inspired by a love of animals and an eclectic music taste, Robert’s acrylic painting style appears free and expressive, but behind the psychedelic creations lie ameticulous attention to detail that is quite surprising.
The hidden complexities of his inimitable paintings reflect, as the artist himself says, ‘what nature is all about’.
Tales of Sea @ York Fine Arts
The mysteries of the deep blue have always fed the imagination and interest of man, long before Blue Planet first aired on our screens.
This month York Fine Art reveals how the allure of the sea still captures the imagination of some of the UK’s leading marine artists.
The mixed exhibition, Tales of Sea, explores the myriad tales of the sea, told from the perspective of artists who have spent years practising their craft and observing their subject in its many guises.
This maritime exhibition opens on Friday 6 April and runs until the end of the month.
A Birthday Party @ Art of Protest
Join in the spirit of protest and celebration on April 13, when the Art of Protest gallery hosts a dual event: a closing celebration for its current exhibition and its own first birthday party.
The exhibition, A Punk Turns Dandy, features the work of Prefabb77.
Having shown in New York, the North-Eastern artist has returned to the UK and ‘Old York’ to show at the gallery and to mark an occasion which is bound to turn into a good old knees up before the end.
To join in the celebrations, contact the gallery via email.