Surface welcomes back the International Postcard Show. This vibrant, long-running exhibition is a highly popular feature of our calendar and includes hundreds of original artworks from established and aspiring artists from all over the world.

Surface is delighted to present Homeland, a touring exhibition by the photographer and visual artist Paulina Korobkiewicz. The exhibition addresses themes of political identity, belonging, memory and representation among migrant communities in West Bromwich and Hyson Green, the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in Nottingham.

Surface is pleased to announce the return of our annual volunteer show, Radiate. The exhibition features a range of artistic practices as diverse as our dedicated community of volunteers. Radiate encompasses the warmth and inclusivity of Surface, and gives back to the volunteers that make it all possible.

Form is the first exhibition of abstract drawings by award-winning filmmaker, graphic artist, and musician, Andrew Spinks. The exhibition presents work from the past 15 years, created using a technique devised by the artist during a stay in hospital for mental health treatment, to answer the question of what to draw when no intention is present other than the will to create.

The Deca-dance of Mr.Ray brings together the full-range of the artist's distinctive multi-layered work. Subtly yet lavishly, accoutrements of Hieronymus Bosch and the flavours of René Magritte conjoin with the Golden Age of Hollywood. Such cinematic pieces present a swirling panorama of love and tragedy, exploding thoughts by means of dark drama, cryptic triptychs, and futuristic sci-fi scenes, where creation and demise finally collide.

The return of the most anarchic, the most spectacular show in town: the Nottingham Street Art Festival!

The Street Art Festival celebrates and supports Nottingham’s thriving alternative art scene by showcasing some of today’s best local, national, and international street art. Up to six pieces can be submitted per person and all work will be hung salon style, packed from floor to ceiling. All submissions will be displayed as long as you can get them through the door!

Surface is delighted to present Reclamation, an exhibition by artist and researcher Jagdish Patel which celebrates the interconnections between socially engaged art and anti-racism through photography, archival artefacts, paintings and video.

Surface is now accepting submissions for our thirteenth East Midlands Graduate Project: EM23: Nottingham’s only graduate residency. This opportunity supports Fine Art graduates from across the region by offering a free residency and exhibition in an independent contemporary art space to kick-start the transition from university to professional art world.

Surface is delighted to present Conversations with Kith, a group exhibition from Kith Artist Collective. Founded in 2016, Kith is a multidisciplinary collective with strong connections to Nottingham and the East Midlands. Conversations with Kith brings together work from ten members whose respective practices encompass painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, installation and moving image.

Conversations with Lines explores the relationship between landscape and art, and considers the way we experience and mark those landscapes in which we live, work, and walk. The artwork on display has a direct relationship with the steps taken by Gear in the “edgeland” landscapes of Nottinghamshire, and also refers further afield to the Peak District and Lake District national parks.

Surface is delighted to announce Unquiet Minds, a collaborative exhibition of painting and photography which aims to open conversations about mental health and challenge preconceptions about this often uneasy subject.

Surface is pleased to announce Fuzzy Logic, an exhibition by second-year Fine Art students from Nottingham Trent University. Fuzzy Logic is the culmination of a short residency, and explores the many facets of art and the new ideas developing within the year group.

If Only They Knew explores the effects of domestic abuse through a range of visual media: painting, mixed media, sculpture, photography. Art has always been a part of Buttrum’s life, but became increasingly important in her journey, helping her to escape loneliness and to express her own experience of domestic abuse. There is the common misconception that domestic abuse occurs solely between intimate partners. As the work on display illustrates, domestic abuse is any form of abuse within your domestic circle.

Emerging with seeds of creative growth, the studio artists reveal new work nurtured over the winter months. Creating space for relationships to be formed between unconventionally aligned practices, Full Circle presents ghostly typewriters, displaced organic sculptural shapes, and imaginary landscapes, taking you in, around, and between different ideas of growth and materiality. Expect stored sunshine to light up Surface this April!

March sees the return of the annual Surface collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, the 12th NTU Festival: Inside, Outside, Together, Apart. The festival will explore our sense of place and belonging. Artists will respond to current events and the changing contexts of art production, paying attention to our recent experiences of the pandemic and lockdown. The need to both belong to a group, and be an individual, is an enduring paradox, one that you are invited to explore through contemporary artworks on display at the NTU Festival 2023.

Surface is pleased to announce Inside Out, an exhibition by Carys Reilly and Brian Daines. Inside Out addresses women's health issues and how they are portrayed in society where they are often minimised, trivialised and ignored. The artists want to challenge the lack of awareness, and inadequate diagnosis and treatment, that leave many women marginalised in the world of work, and in life generally.

Classic Stories features images inspired by still-life art and great literature. The literature spans a broad selection of works by English and American authors, writing across a range of genres and centuries. Among the most recent works in the collection are Beloved, by Toni Morrison, while the earliest texts are from the late 14th century, and include The Miller’s Tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Surface is delighted to welcome back the International Postcard Show. This vibrant, long-running exhibition features hundreds of original artworks from established and aspiring artists from all over the world. All submissions are included, from painting and print through to textiles and illustration, creating a wonderfully eclectic mix of artwork.

Surface is pleased to announce our annual volunteer show, Heart of the Gallery. Come along and support the people that give their time and energy to Surface, and who truly are the beating heart of the gallery.

Surface invites artists from across the world to participate in our annual International Postcard Show.

Surface is delighted to welcome the UKHK Book Fair.

A virtual reality drug deal gone wrong, the peaceful sounds of a music festival decimated by war, a multiversal journey through various call centres. Intriguing? This is just a taste of what you’ll experience with award-winning immersive theatre group Chronic Insanity and See No Hear No Speak No Evil.

Surface is delighted to announce the exhibition for our twelfth East Midlands Graduate Project, EM22: Communion.

This Summer at Surface sees the return of the most anarchic, the most spectacular show in town: the Nottingham Street Art Festival. This hugely popular exhibition supports and promotes Nottingham’s vibrant alternative art scene by showcasing some of today’s best local talent.

A collection of artwork by current and recent Surface studio artists. Whether you are drawn in by Paul Henegan’s multimedia sculptures mixing snippets of material memories, or enchanted by Caitlin Hickling’s tumbling sedimental map, the flow ebbing through the gallery pulls you from the outside in.