ZEST Collective presents ‘Sting’, their ninth exhibition and second instalment in a series of two. This group show brings together 18 artists in an exploration of resilience and creative survival.

The exhibition title, ‘Sting’ emerges from the emotional impact of rejection, a shared experience which many artists navigate when sustaining a creative practice.

Highlighting the intersection between professional adversity and biological defence the show asks the question: what happens after the sting? Do we retreat, or do we respond?

If the sting is inevitable, ‘Sting’ asks what it means to answer back.  From systemic barriers of rejection from unanswered applications, loss of funding and the erosion of accessible creative spaces, to the physicality of being stung, this exhibition offers a collective response.

Encompassing works which confront the brief directly and others which reflect more subtly on the theme of defiance and transformation. ‘Sting’ holds this question open, inviting responses that are personal, political, and provocative.

Featuring:

Ellen Gillett, Net Ember, Jenny Andrews, lucie smith, Alice Louisa, Poppy Ash, Rabia Raja, Kane Applegate, Anna Marris, Robin Price, Bryn Lloyd, Sharlott Wardner, Sophie Rawlingson, Elyzia Pyrite, Kristína Marošiová, Gre, Agáta Zimová, James Hewins

Poster design by James Hewins, featuring an image of a European hornet captured on an electron microscope during a collaboration with the Biomedical Imaging Unit in Southampton

Photography featured on this page was captured by Luke Shears