Exhibitions

Gallery Oldham has three large exhibition spaces plus a community gallery.

We take an innovative and unique approach to exhibition programming, bringing together what were once separate museum and gallery services.

Our programming incorporates Oldham’s extensive art, social and natural history collections alongside touring work, newly commissioned and contemporary art, international art and work produced with local communities.

In addition we have permanent displays around the building.

Current Exhibitions

Gallery 1 – Oldham StoriesAmerican Eagle Owl

This gallery permanently houses both:

Oldham Stories exhibition, featuring selected objects from our extensive collections to tell and show the stories of Oldham and its local communities. From birds and shells to a recreation of an Edwardian chemist’s shop, every object has a fascinating tale to tell. The display features local figures such as suffragette Annie Kenny, the pioneering natural history collector James Nield and the popular artist Helen Bradley.

The Community Gallery, which has a wide range of exhibitions by groups and individuals from the Borough of Oldham.

Gallery 2 – The Art of the Everyday

18 May 2021 – 26 June 2021

Art of the Everyday shows a diverse range of artworks by artists from Manchester Academy of Fine Art (MAFA).

We decided upon the theme of “the everyday” last year, when we couldn’t have begun to imagine how drastically our everyday lives would change. Since the artists began to work on this exhibition the Covid pandemic has affected every aspect of life as we know it. This is reflected in the drawings, prints, sculpture and paintings of the 53 artists taking part in the exhibition.

Artist Colin Taylor’s ‘Last day in Manchester’ shows eerily empty streets of the city centre, Alison Diamond Rogers’ ‘Holding Hands’ feels very different from if we’d looked at this a year ago. 

Find out more about this exhibition, download the exhibition catalogue and take a look at our series of behind-the-scenes studio films as well as pastel and woodcut workshops by visiting The Art of Everyday webpage.

  • Older women wearing facemask, looking down at her smartphone.
Last Day in Manchester by Colin Taylor, Holding Hands by Alison Diamond Rogers and Stay Safe by Peter Davis

Gallery 3 – Brick by Brick

26 June – 4 September 2021

Girl playing with tilting table part of the Brick by Brick exhibition interactives.

 

The Brick by Brick exhibition gathers the work of 18 artists, designers and photographers from around the world who use LEGO® bricks as their medium or inspiration. Using this simple plastic construction block as their starting point, they have created stunning, thought provoking and often humorous artworks which will appeal to art enthusiasts and LEGO® fans alike. Inspired by the wide range of artworks on show, a LEGO® graffiti wall, build tables and a selection of LEGO® related games gives visitors the opportunity to try their hand at creating their own construction brick artwork.

Image Credit: Photography – James Mulkeen

Brick by Brick is a 20-21 Visual Arts Centre Touring Exhibition.           

                                                     

Oldham’s Lockdown Museum – online exhibition

A child’s rainbow in a window

Oldham’s Lockdown Museum is a new digital project to collect a snapshot of what life is like in our local area during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We’d love to share your experiences and ideas, and see pictures (photographs or drawings/paintings) or films of the objects that sum them up, whatever they are.

Each week we will set a theme for you to respond to. You are also welcome to send us Lockdown related images which don’t relate to the themes. We will exhibit our favourite entries in Oldham’s Lockdown Museum the following week so make sure that you check back here soon. To find out more about how to enter and this week’s theme click here.

Coming soon….in 2021

 

Benedict Phillips | 6 July – 8 October 2021

Benedict Philips in Red Hat in front of blackboard
The Red DIV, 2011 by Benedict Philips
© Benedict Philips

We present Benedict Phillips’ first large scale exhibition of contemporary art and performance.

Benedict is “very good at being disleksick” and his work concentrates on his experiences of living in a leksick world. Benedict has been exploring social and political ideas of difference through photography, sculpture, performance and video since 1995, when his ‘Agenda of the Aggressive Dyslexic’ was published.

Benedict says “Exploring and communicating through doing and making images is fundamental to human nature despite the text heavy society that we live in. My work is deadly serious about some flippant attitudes within society and deliberately provocative and humorous about the harsh experiences of this life”.