EASTBOURNE.- Eastbourne’s Towner Art Gallery is presenting an exhibition entitled Inhabit: composing settings from the Towner Collection, curated entirely using works from the gallery’s extensive collection of historic, modern and contemporary art. Running from 17 February - 13 May, this conceptual installation of paintings, sculptures and prints invites the visitor to inhabit the gallery spaces as they move through three defined ‘settings’. These immersive environments, created through the juxtaposition of the art works, inspire the imagination and encourage the viewer to find hidden connections by altering their perspective.

Visitors enter into a monochrome landscape where the town’s folk are noticeably absent; evidence of urbanisation waits patiently for new inhabitants as a bird hovers over a craggy rock face in amongst stark dark trees. Next, they step inside a domestic setting, defined by bold primary colours, before finally visiting a setting dominated by a mountain and a leafy forest path that draws the viewer in to an imagined landscape.

Inhabit includes works by Edward Bawden, Dennis Creffield, Gertrude Hermes, Phelan Gibb, Duncan Grant, Derrick Greaves, Roland Jarvis, Robert MacBryde, Harold Mockford and Monica Poole, as well as contemporary artists Peter Liversidge, Tania Kovats, Zoe Walker and Graham Gussin. The display also showcases new acquisitions to the Towner Collection, a selection of prints by Patrick Caulfield and paintings by Wilfred Avery and Patrick Heron.

The exhibition is accompanied by a series of associated events exploring themes and works in the exhibition in more detail, as well as providing a fascinating insight into the gallery’s collection of nearly 5000 works. These events include an informal tour of the exhibition led by the exhibition’s curator – Towner’s Collections Curator Karen Taylor, who will discuss the works and themes in the show, as well as a walk and talk led by printmaker and collector Patrick Goff focusing on the Patrick Caulfield works in the exhibition which were gifted to the collection by Goff himself. There’s also a chance to be amongst the first to see new gifts to the Towner Collection during a talk from Towner’s Head of Collections Sara Cooper, which will include visit to the gallery’s art store.