All female sculpture trail revealed for successful Shrewsbury arts showcase

The Shrewsbury Arts Trail has gained international renown for bringing high profile art and sculpture to the streets of Shrewsbury – last year’s trail included Salvador Dali sculptures that had never before been seen in the UK.

The 2024 theme of ‘Time’ will be explored in a raft of exhibitions across town, with a compelling mix of sculpture and mixed media, focusing on female contemporary British living artists.

Organiser Jess Richards said she was ‘pleased and proud’ to announce the ‘All British Female Sculptors Trail’, which will run from June 1 until August 31, with works by Shropshire sculptor Halima Cassell MBE, Alice Irwin and Almuth Tebbenhoff on public view.

Jess said she was inspired to bring an all-female trail to Shrewsbury due to the ‘unrepresentation of female artists throughout art history’, adding: “A male-dominated society isn’t my reality. In my reality, nearly everyone I work with – local decision makers – are all women. The Shrewsbury Arts Trail sculpture trail this year celebrates what women are achieving every day.

"Sculpture, finding the stone, working with materials, is very physical work. That’s what I really like about these sculptures. To me, they are a physical representation of our collective strength as women.

Cassell’s beautiful sculptures use definite lines and dramatic angles to create an unsettling sense of movement.

Her work is held in various national and international collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Hepworth Wakefield and Birmingham Art Gallery.

Cassell’s piece ‘Hurricane’ will be on display at St Mary’s Church, in front of the main altar and spectacular, stained glass, mediaeval ‘Jesse’ window; the hand carved piece in fibreglass and jesmonite, was first exhibited in the artist’s solo exhibition at Glyndebourne in 2021 and demonstrates a captivating interplay of colour, light and shadow, evoking a sense of dynamic motion and fluidity.

Alice Irwin is known for her ‘Peeps’ – playful, anthropomorphic steel sculptures in bright colours, exploring childhood innocence and human identity – which will be on view in the open air courtyard at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery this summer.

With her first major international show currently on at Pitzhanger, and a previous public feature at Trinity Buoy Wharf in 2002, Irwin's sculptural installations have been gaining significant recognition in the emerging contemporary art scene.

Almuth Tebbenhoff’s explosive forms, sometimes in bright colours, investigate themes of light, space and the origins of matter. Tebbenhoff has been a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors since 2002 and has exhibited widely in Britain and Europe.

Her contribution to the Shrewsbury Arts Trail this summer will be the eye-catching, five-metre tall ‘RedHead Sunset Stack’, rising up from the pond in the middle of The Dingle, in Shrewsbury’s Quarry.

Reminiscent of children’s stacking blocks, in brightly coloured steel, the piece is intended to capture something of the awe that seeing a beautiful sunset inspires in the artist – reduced to the form of a large toy-tower.

At the centre, pink and orange shapes convey ‘a ragged and unstable human experience’ at the mercy of incomprehensible forces. They are sandwiched between the steady blue earth and the red sun cubes – ‘the only constants we have’.

The works by Tebenhoff and Cassell have been loaned from the artists and The Soden Collection contemporary art gallery on Wyle Cop, in Shrewsbury, while the Irwin piece is supported by Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery.

Jonathan Soden, of The Soden Collection, said: “Female artists have historically been underrepresented in the art world, particularly in comparison to their male counterparts. By highlighting an all-female cast in this year’s Shrewsbury Arts Trail it might just correct that a little bit. Female contemporary sculptors bring unique perspectives, experiences and style to their work.

"As a gallery owner I view this work all the time, it’s what I eat, sleep and breathe, sometimes I can also take it for granted that others don't get to view this spectacular art. I am excited to be part of enabling the public to see it in our own town.”

Other major highlights of the wider Shrewsbury Arts Trail this July and August include

* The Inspirational Exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, featuring iconic artists such as Hockney, Hirst, Dali, Tracey Emin, Kris Lamba, Jacob Chandler, Andrew Logan and many more.

* An immersive infinity room experience at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, inspired by Yayoi Kusama. The 12ft mirrored cube created with artist RevDanCatt and the help of Shrewsbury Men’s Shed will take visitors on a journey through the colour spectrum.

* The Open Exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, The Parade Shops and Shrewsbury Market Hall.

* A Photography Exhibition at The Hive on the theme of 'Time' curated by Phil Langstaff.

* A comics exhibition at Theatre Severn including works by comic greats Charlie Adlard and Mike Perkins and curated by Shrewsbury Comic Con.

* A gigantic community art installation at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery.

* Workshops for children including ‘Mini Masterpieces’ at The Gateway Gallery.

* Workshops in partnership with the DRAWN Collective at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery.

Further workshops, exhibitions and talks at St Mary’s Church, including a stained glass festival in August.

Open Studios in partnership with SY Open Studios.

For more information visit shrewsburyartstrail.com