This year’s Kingston Artists Open Studios, KAOS, will take place over two weekends in June: 11-12 June and 18-19 June, from 11am to 5pm.
Open Studios has been happening in Kingston for the past twelve years and in that time has gone from strength to strength.
The nationwide scheme of Open Studios was created to support the work of artists within the local community and to promote accessibility to art and artists. Visits are free of charge and artists are happy to talk about their creative process. Works of art are for sale but there is no obligation to buy, the focus is on enjoying your visit.
This is the perfect time for you to meet local artists, see their work and discover the techniques they use and the passions that inspire them. We are often told by visitors how much they have enjoyed the opportunity to see what is being created around them, in a space that feels more friendly and accessible than a smart gallery. The other good thing we hear is how the participating artists appreciate this chance to meet their neighbours and wider community and to share their creative ideas.
We are joining forces with Richmond artists this year
This year we are delighted to have been joined by artists, ceramicists, sculptors, printmakers and photographers from across the borough of Richmond who are exhibiting their work in Teddington, Twickenham, Hampton, Whitton, central Richmond and East Sheen.
As an added dimension some exhibitors across both boroughs will be holding workshops or giving demonstrations of their techniques in anything from sculpture and ceramics to drawing, painting and making jewellery.
For details of where the artists are exhibiting and what they are showing visit the online catalogue
About KAOS
Kingston Artists Open Studios (KAOS) is an unfunded, voluntary group set up and run by local artists to promote the visual arts in the borough of Kingston. Established in 2010 we are open to artists, sculptors, ceramicists, printmakers, photographers and other crafts people living or working in or around Kingston. If you are interested in joining the group please visit our website and send in your application.
Our biggest event is the annual Open Studios, but we also hold regular group exhibitions further afield. In 2019 members exhibited in Oldenburg, Cologne, Venice, the Venice Biennale, Bermondsey, Mayfair and Richmond. Sadly since that time our public activities were severely curtailed, but we still managed to hold artist talks online, where artists showed their work to the online audience and talked about their thinking and inspirations behind it.
In October 2022 KAOS will hold a joint exhibition called ‘Circles and Squares’ in Fitzrovia Gallery, Bloomsbury, with artists from Kingston’s twin town of Oldenburg, Germany. The area around Fitzrovia has been suffused with the avant garde, and home to artists, writers, poets and musicians. For the exhibition the participating artists have been asked to take as their source material an artist or their work who was associated with Fitzrovia. We are very excited about the range of work and ideas they have put forward.
To find out more about KAOS and how to join, please visit our website: www.kingstonartistsopenstudios.co.uk
