Shaftesbury Avenue
Soho Connections: Artist Takeover at Shaftesbury Avenue
Bow Arts presents a takeover of Shaftesbury’s ex-office buildings led by the Soho Connections artists in residence. Taking place over two weekends in March, experience exhibitions, workshops and more.
Coming Up at Shaftesbury Avenue
Past Exhibitions
Exhibition Dates: Frieze Week Wed 9 – Sun 13 Oct, 10am-6pm
then Thurs-Sun, 12-6pm until 3 Nov
Exhibitions are free, and all are welcome – wheelchair access via lift inside.
Take a Seat
40 unique and sculptural artist-made chairs that mischievously merged the aesthetics of form and functionality, inviting audiences to both play and sit down across Shaftesbury’s vast open plan space.
Take A Seat was a collaboration between Bow Arts and curatorial duo ha.lf, (Haydn Albrow and Flora Bradwell). Several of the participating artists created their site-specific chairs at Shaftesbury as part of a residency, responding to the building by both assimilating and rejecting the ‘desolate’ office environment.
Absurd Visions
Absurd Visions saw mechanised sculpture, film and performance create a labyrinth of bizarre and technological discovery throughout Shaftesbury’s ex-offices.
Absurd Visions featured work from Rosie Gibbens’ Parabiosis series and Tim Spooner’s A New Kind of Animal which wove themselves into the office detritus left behind in the Shaftesbury building.
Parabiosis unpacked the pregnant body with sculptures that combine ‘puppets’ and machinery. The title referred to the surgical technique of joining two living organisms together to share a physiological system. Inspired by this process and theories about artificial robotic wombs, Gibbens created various ‘birthing’ contraptions.
Teachers in Residence at Shaftesbury Avenue
Bow Arts Learning are hosting an Artist Teacher Summer Residency at Shaftesbury Avenue. Seven teacher artists are honing their practice, and exploring how developing their work can positively translate into classroom arts-based learning.
Artist opportunities
Develop professionally
Along with offering affordable studio spaces, we also provide opportunities to help you to develop professionally, such as workshops, training sessions, peer crits, panel discussions and the sale of your art through Own Art.
What’s On at Bow Arts
Bow Arts works across London to provide affordable studios and access to the arts. Take a look at what’s going on in east London.
The Line Family workshop: storytelling and creating coloured origami boats with Joseph Ijoyemi
Come and join Joseph Ijoyemi as we create coloured origami boats, adding your personal messages around themes of belonging, migration, integration, and what it means to live in east London. Open to children and families of all ages.
Bowfest: Open Studios 2025
Get ready for Bow Arts’ biggest event of the summer! Meet our community of over 100 talented artists working at our flagship site, Bow Road.