Free public discussion with the artists, chaired by artist and writer John Bunker
Saturday 17 October, 1.30-4pm. Everyone welcome.
The Margate School of Art 31-33 High Street Margate, CT9 1DX
www.mast.art
Private View Thursday 8 October 2026, 5-8pm Exhibition open Thursday 8 – Sunday 18 October 2026 Tuesday - Sunday, 10-4pm Private View Thursday 8 October 2026, 5-8pm
Exhibition open Thursday 8 – Sunday 18 October 2026
Tuesday - Sunday, 10-4pm
Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) is an exhibiting and discussion forum formed in 2019 by abstract sculptors Gillian Brent (Sheffield), Alexandra Harley (London/Norfolk) and Sheila Vollmer (London). The collective has an established exhibition profile exploring contemporary abstract sculpture, generating dialogue and supporting multi-generational women’s practices in the genre. TSM are fore-fronting the practice of community building as integral to the ongoing feminist repositioning of abstract sculpture, to redress the imbalance resulting from women sculptors’ underrepresentation in the genre. TSM aim to provide a showcase for intergenerational women’s practices and augment their voices.
For this exhibition, TSM invites London and Margate based artist Melanie Ahmed to show with them. Melanie’s paintings and deconstructed painted objects offer a bridge between the more familiar genre of abstract painting and the composition of form, materiality, colour and surface in the works by the TSM sculptors.
Throughout their careers, the TSM sculptors have chosen not to make work about women’s issues and domesticity, preferring instead to focus on material, process, space and visual connections. For the exhibition at The Margate School, TSM want to interrogate and open up conversations about how the visual languages of this discipline refer indirectly to the complex world we live in and how much this can be understood as gendered, fuelling discussions that explore and dissect the content and nuance of the artists’ respective practices and how they engage with ideas.
Each time TSM exhibits they host a free public discussion about their practice, ideologies and experiences of working as women abstract artists, aiming to provide an inclusive environment for audiences to engage and respond on their terms. The discussion for Rebalancing the Abstract will be chaired by artist and writer John Bunker in the exhibition, offering an exchange of ideas around the languages of abstract art and the evolving nature of women’s art practices.
Links:
TSM https://talking-sculpture-making.co.uk/ @talkingsculpturemaking
Gillian Brent, sculptor, TSM http://www.gillianbrent.co.uk/ @gillianbrent
Alexandra Harley, sculptor, TSM https://www.alexandraharley.co.uk @harleysculpture
Sheila Vollmer, sculptor, TSM https://www.sheilavollmer.com/ @sheilavollmer
Melanie Ahmed, painter. https://www.melanieahmed.com @melanieahmed.art
John Bunker, artist & writer https://www.tensionfineart.co.uk/our-dust-is-blowing-along-the-road/ @johnbunker7272
This exhibition is a partnership between TSM and MAST.
Sheila Vollmer, ‘W-rap IX (Double Blue)’, 2026
Steel, paint
