Project Art Works (PAW) put on a really beautiful show recently at the Arts Forum. PAW had mentored six artists with learning disabilities and complex needs over 18 months. The artists were given the opportunity to work intensively in an artist studio environment under the careful mentoring of Tony Colley. The results of this unique period of professional development are extraordinary and were displayed as six very distinct bodies of work. Jonathan Rogers’ abstracts would not be out of place in Bond Street or the Tate, Michelle Roberts marshalls a panorama of small images in brilliant colours, kept in perfect balance on massive canvases. Albert Geere showed powerful, punchy colour-formed experiences (see his House below) and John Croft‘s 1960s pop icons are quite unique, his Ziggy Stardust a match for anything Warhol did. The Arts Forum still have the catalogues for just a fiver.  See HOT’s Community Arts page or look them up at www.projectartworks.org From 10 July you can see selections from the show (A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words) at Hastings Museum in the Upper Walkway.

Also in: Visual Arts