24 May 2021

From 29 May 2021, Wed and Fri, 10am – 4pm, and Sat, 10am – 1pm, by appointment only

MOMA Machynlleth will reopen on Saturday 29 May with Women’s Art in Wales – A Personal View. Supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and selected by guest curator Jill Piercy, this exhibition in the Owen Owen Gallery and Bridge includes 27 artists that Jill has known and exhibited over many years.

With a fascinating range of dates and subject matter, the exhibition features ceramics, stitched works, and sculpture as well as figurative and abstract painting. Most works will be for sale which also adds an element of excitement and turns us all into potential collectors. Our Picture Plan can help to spread the payment of a purchase over a year.

Artists include Bev Bell-Hughes, Brenda Chamberlain, Glenys Cour, Claire Curneen, Rozanne Hawksley, Maria Hayes, Mary Griffiths, Julia Griffiths Jones, Eileen Harrisson, Catrin Howell, Christine Kinsey, Mary Lloyd Jones, Shani Rhys James, Alison Lochhead, Sally Matthews, Eleri Mills, Christine Mills, Sally Moore, Wendy Murphy, Rachel Rea, Luned Rhys Parri, Marged Pendrell, Helen Pugh, Audrey Walker, Catrin Webster, Meri Wells and Catrin Williams. There will also be a series of talks and a publication to accompany the exhibition.

Alongside Women’s Art in Wales, The Tannery Gallery is showing works by Women Artists from The Tabernacle Collection also chosen by Jill Piercy; and the Sculpture Space rounds off the theme with three-dimensional works by Women Artists also from the Collection. We are also celebrating the gift from CASW of ‘Palm Sunday, Beaulieu’ by Gerda Roper which formerly hung in St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Alongside this major work in the Ruralist Room are Gerda’s paintings created for our younger visitors and hung at an appropriate height. Completing our all-female line-up is Natalie Chapman. Natalie was a Prize Winner in the 2019 Tabernacle Art Competition and her first solo exhibition at MOMA Machynlleth is in the Pulpit Room.

We welcome this opportunity to show our first exhibition devoted to Women’s Art in Wales, and indeed to devote all our galleries to only female artists for the first time, and we are profoundly grateful to the Paul Mellon Foundation for making this possible. There will be something for everybody and all are welcome. Men included!

 

Our Planned Reopening

Subject to Government restrictions, from Saturday 29 May MOMA Machynlleth will be open 2.5 days per week on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 10am to 4pm, and Saturdays, 10am – 1pm. Our opening exhibitions are Women’s Art in Wales – A Personal View, Women Artists from the Tabernacle Collection, Hide and Seek – paintings by Gerda Roper and Natalie Chapman: All the things I could have been.

Visitor safety is important to us and MOMA Machynlleth staff have been busy putting arrangements in place to help keep our visitors, volunteers, and staff safe during COVID-19. These arrangements include: contact details being taken for track and trace, wearing of facemasks being compulsory (unless you are exempt), hand sanitiser stations being available throughout the building, one way systems being in operation throughout the galleries with separate entrances and exits for visitors, gallery visits being by pre-booked appointment only, bookings being limited to one extended household per appointment, and enhanced cleaning regimes being in place with surfaces cleaned in between each booking.

Visitors can check availability and book their visit online from Monday 24 May. We encourage visitors to book online but where this is not possible, bookings can also be made by calling 01654 703355, Monday to Saturday, between 10am and 4pm.