Shape Shifting

Bringing together photography, painting and textiles, the exhibition explores ideas of change and transformation through artworks rich in texture, colour and movement. Forms emerge and dissolve, surfaces shift and reflect, and landscapes take on an otherworldly quality, inviting us to look beyond the familiar and consider new perspectives.

Some works evoke a figure or presence emerging from a landscape. In Berwick Heamey’s Untitled painting, a joyful colour palette suggests travel, movement and scenery in flux. Meanwhile, the reflective surfaces of works by Alison Dalwood and Sue Scott create an uncanny, almost eerie atmosphere. German artist Erasmus Schröter’s photography transforms images of bunker ruins into something more ethereal, challenging our perceptions of the built environment.

Together, these works explore the boundaries between the recognisable and the abstract, the tangible and the elusive. Through unexpected forms, shifting surfaces and atmospheric compositions, Shape Shifting invites visitors to consider how landscapes and images can change, transform and reveal new meanings.

^{Image: Erasmus Schröter, Bunker XB, XII, 1990}

About the UH Art Collection

Shape Shifting offers an opportunity to discover the University of Hertfordshire Art Collection, an eclectic collection of more than 500 artworks spanning historical and contemporary art, alongside work by university students and staff.

Managed by the UH Arts + Culture team within the Creative Enterprise office, the collection has achieved Arts Council Accreditation, a nationally recognised standard for collections management, care, access and interpretation.

Click here to find out more about the UH Art Collection

Venue Info

The Art + Design Gallery is open Mon–Fri, 10:00–16:00. Visit our Travel + Parking page for more info on how to get here.