Join us for the opening of a new and powerful exhibition featuring four large-scale co-produced paintings created through workshops led by artist Will Belshah. Hosted at the newly opened Arches space at HOME, these works reflect a convergence of personal histories, radical vulnerability, and artistic inquiry.
Exploring the intersections of neurodivergence, substance use, queerness, and creativity, the exhibition offers a raw and unfiltered meditation on how lived experience shapes artistic practice. Here, recovery is not a conclusion but a shared process — of listening, making, and being together.
Artist statement: Will Belshah
Why do we make things together?
Sometimes the world tries to force us into boxes - act this way, talk like that, follow the script. But some of us just don’t fit, and that’s okay and natural. We’re all different - in our bodies, minds and feelings. It’s in that difference that we find creativity, not chaos. But we don’t often get space to just be.
Art gives us that space. No wrong answers. No pressure to explain yourself. Just a chance to be real, be present, and connect - not through perfect words, but through doing something side by side.
This project isn’t just about the finished paintings. It’s about what happens between us - the laughs, the stories, the quiet focus, the shared breath. These are artefacts of those moments. They tell a story about what it means to be human - together.
Find out more about Will Belshah here.
Contributing artists:
Alana Lake founded the award-winning project space ‘Gravity Seeks Love’ in Berlin, primarily supporting queer practitioners and female-identifying curators. Alana’s PhD research, 'Towards a Pathology of Desire’, examines addiction through glass, ceramic, and expanded drawing, exploring its biological and psychological dimensions:
Find out more about Alana Lake here.
Ben Goring makes large-scale clay images informed by rich fluidity and movement. In 2023, Ben was invited for a residency at Grizedale Arts and exhibited at Smolensky Gallery Manchester and Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, where Ben’s work was selected for Manchester Art Gallery’s permanent collection.
Find out more about Ben Goring here.
Jaymus is an artist from Longsight, an inner-city area of Manchester, and that grit and spirit come through in everything he does. Growing up in the rave scene, he struggled with substances for years - but he now channels that intensity into his art. Living with bipolar disorder, creating isn’t just something he does - it’s how he stays grounded:
Find out more about Jaymus here.
Jennie Franklin produces detailed drawings in pencil and pen like an energetic stream of consciousness. She picks and chooses imagery and text from various sources, which she combines to create her own intuitive compositions, in particular tv programmes and cartoon characters.
Find out more about Jennie Franklin here.
