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HENLEY FESTIVAL 2024 UNVEILS PIONEERING VISUAL ARTS SHOWCASE

10 – 14 July 2024 | henley-festival.co.uk | #HenleyFestival | @henleyfestival

Henley Festival Presented by Westcoast – the UK’s only boutique black-tie festival – is delighted to reveal this year’s dazzling visual arts programme, featuring one of Britain’s best-selling figurative painters Mark Demsteader, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and Archibald People’s Choice Award-winning artist Esther Erlich, and sculptor Holly Bendall, who creates striking bronzes including a Greenpeace-supported permanent public installation that can be experienced in Porthleven.

HAUT DE GAMME | TAYO IRVINE HENDRIX | THE BARKER GALLERY

i SPY CONTEMPORARY: TOMMY GURR | PANTER & HALL | AMBER GALLERIES | PUNCHBOWL GALLERY

NINA BROOKE | THE DRANG GALLERY | FI HUNTER | MIKE CLANCY | CHRISTOPHER TOWNSEND

SIMON PROBYN | HOLLY BENDALL | FRED GORDON | HELEN GORDON | HANOI ART HOUSE: LEN GIFFORD

BETH RUSBY | CLARE BIGGER | NICOLA GODDEN | EVANESCENT BY ATELIER SISU

Audi High RISE artists & sculptors BEATRICE GALLETLEY | CONRAD CLARKE | ROBERT WARE | AMIE ELIZABETH WOLO

Henley Festival is renowned for pioneering spectacular festival art, and this year’s stunning line-up showcases an enchanting array of fine art, ceramics, sculptures, photography, prints, paintings and light installations – all forming part of five magical summer nights packed full of world-class music, comedy, dining, dancing, fireworks and magical moments. From Wednesday 10 July to Sunday 14 July, the green banks of the riverside in Henley-on-Thames will transform into a mesmerising outdoor gallery, displaying works by some of the UK’s most celebrated artists, as well as the next generation of talent participating in the Festival’s charitable initiative RISE. 

The Ruby Gallery is set to host a remarkable exhibition of world-class art, including pieces from Haut de Gamme, an international platform for the original artwork, prints, and installations by Alexander Hall – who aged just 22 was commissioned by Peter Jones CBE to create all of the artwork for his international offices and has since gone on to become one of the world’s most recognised multimedia artists – and the visionary polymath, Tayo Irvine Hendrix, who seamlessly blends fine art, music and spirituality to create multi-faceted works of spiritual exploration.

The Ruby Gallery will also feature curated collections from: The Barker Gallery, an esteemed hub for contemporary art founded by Jon Barker; I Spy Contemporary, founded by Festival favourite Tommy Gurr, who will be showcasing works from their roster of urban and contemporary street artist; West End gallery Panter & Hall is back to the riverside to exhibit a selection of their leading contemporary artists including Mark Demsteader, Simon Laurie, Esther Erlich and Edward Seago; Amber Galleries will be adding Henley to their beautifully crafted gallery destinations; and the independent and artist-led gallery, Punchbowl Gallery, will be exhibiting their contemporary paintings, prints and sculptures.

Meanwhile, The Festival Gallery will feature artist, surfer and traveller Nina Brooke, who will be bringing her jewel-like paintings that capture unique aerial perspectives of the world’s most picturesque seas, beaches and shorelines, and The Drang Gallery will delight festivalgoers with their range of modern masters and new emerging talent.  

In the Audi High RISE Gallery, Audi are championing emerging artistic talent through their continued support of the Festival’s charitable initiative RISE. Three visual artists – Cheltenham-based Jackson’s Emerging Artist Award winner and landscape painter Conrad P Clarke, winner of the 2019 Phyllis Roberts Prize and 2022 Young Artist Award Robert Ware, and Amie Elizabeth Wolo, who won the 2023 Woman in Art Prize’s Susan Angoy Award – will be exhibiting, each representing a spectrum of creative inspiration, artistic approaches, backgrounds, ages and abilities. They will also come together to collectively design a car wrap that will feature on Audi’s latest fully electric SUV, the Audi Q8 e-tron – a major installation in the Audi High RISE Gallery & Sculpture Garden space. Additionally, Audi is inviting each artist to create a unique piece for a silent auction where the artists will retain 100% of the proceeds raised. In the run up to the festival, the auction artworks will be showcased at the renowned men’s outfitters, Richard James, on London’s Savile Row.

Audi’s support of new talent also extends to the Festival’s remarkable riverside Sculpture Garden, where RISE sculptor Beatrice Galletley – an award-winning, London-based ceramic artist inspired by the juxtaposition of geometric and organic forms – will have her astonishing pieces on display. Festival goers will be able to enjoy further work from leading sculptors including Marlow’s Fi Hunter and her larger-than-life sculpted heads that explore the fragility and strength of the human condition. RIBA registered architect Mike Clancy brings his figurative, abstract and conceptual artworks that bridge the gap between art and architecture, citing influences such as Picasso and Richard Serra. 

If that’s not enough, there are further installations on display courtesy of sculptor Christopher Townsend, who is inspired by the agricultural environment of his Oxfordshire studio; Simon Probyn who creates bespoke industrial sculpture for the landscape; Cornwall artist Holly Bendall whose passion for public art can be seen in her bronze masterpiece Waiting for Fish, which was supported by Greenpeace and unveiled by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in Porthleven; Fred Gordon’s award-winning bronzes created with the historical lost wax method; elegant yet playful figurative human and animal sculptures by Helen Gordon; contemporary fine art gallery Hanoi Art House will be showcasing the life-sized creations of Len Gifford; Australian-born, Henley-based sculptor Beth Rusby presents her clever and witty sculptures created out of cardboard and paper; Clare Bigger captures the spontaneity and fluidity of movement in her stainless steel-forms; and whether abstracted or realistic, Nicola Godden’s sculptures take inspiration from the beauty of human figure.

Alongside the Ruby Gallery, Audi High RISE Gallery, The Festival Gallery and Sculpture Garden, the green banks of the Thames will be glowing and humming with an all-immersive installation. On the Riverside LawnAtelier Sisu will be displaying their magnificent, larger-than-life bubble artwork Evanescentiridescent in daylight and illuminated in nighttime accompanied by an ethereal soundscape.

HENLEY FESTIVAL 2024: FULL LINE-UP

FLOATING STAGE HEADLINERS

NICOLE SCHERZINGER | | GLADYS KNIGHT 

DAVE STEWART’S EURYTHMICS SONGBOOK 

HOUSE GOSPEL CHOIR | MINISTRY OF SOUND IBIZA ANTHEMS WITH ELLIE SAX

And on Sunday… NIGEL KENNEDY| SAM RYDER

PURE HEAVEN – The Festival Club

TREVOR NELSON | RYLAN! | THE BOOTLEG BEATLES 

COMEDY at the Paradiso & Riverside

MARK WATSON | ANGELA BARNES | DARA Ó BRIAIN | SARA PASCOE | FLO & JOAN | MARCEL LUCONT

RISE by Henley Festival

Creating opportunities for emerging talent to learn, perform and flourish

Westcoast Rising Star Award Winner KATYA 

ALEX FRANCIS | LOUISE PARKER | THE MULTIVERSE 

EDEN HUNTER | THE GREAT LESLIE | THE WAVE MACHINE 

JAZZ & SWING at the Paradiso

MIMI ROSE & THE MULBERRY EARLS | REBECCA POOLE | BELLE NOIR 

ELECTRO SWING PROJECT | NATTY CONGEROO & THE FLAMES OF RHYTHM

WORLD in the Bedouin Tent

AMUSE MANOUCHE | COYOTE | NATALIE GRAY | HORSES ON THE BEACH | JESSE SMITH | JG COLLECTIVE

LADY NADE | BETH MORRIS & THE MOONRISERS | CHARLOTTE CAMPBELL | BLOC OFF THE WALL 

VISUAL ARTS in Henley Festival’s Galleries & Sculpture Garden

HAUT DE GAMME | TAYO IRVINE HENDRIX | THE BARKER GALLERY

I SPY CONTEMPORARY: TOMMY GURR | PANTER & HALL | AMBER GALLERIES | PUNCHBOWL GALLERY

NINA BROOKE | THE DRANG GALLERY | FI HUNTER | MIKE CLANCY | CHRISTOPHER TOWNSEND

SIMON PROBYN | HOLLY BENDALL | FRED GORDON | HELEN GORDON | HANOI ART HOUSE: LEN GIFFORD

BETH RUSBY | CLARE BIGGER | NICOLA GODDEN | EVANESCENT BY ATELIER SISU

Audi High RISE artists & sculptors BEATRICE GALLETLEY | CONRAD CLARKE | ROBERT WARE | AMIE ELIZABETH WOLO

PLAYDATE @ Henley Festival

JONNY AWSUM | MARCEL LUCONT: LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES | FRED IN THE SHED

OUT OF THE BOX: DARRYL CARRINGTON | KIDS SILENT DISCO | PUNCH & JUDY | PROFESSOR STRANGE 

TWISTINA THE AMAZING BALLOON LADY | BUBBLE FAIRY | HOCUS POCUS CLOWNS | CIRCUS SKILLS 

MATT PANG’S HAPPY HEART BIKE | DOODLE JAM | SINGING WORKSHOPS | PEMBERTON & HAGUE 

THOMAS TRILBY | HUMAN HEDGES | FUTURE MANNEQUINS | SLINKIES | KITSCH KAFÉ

henley-festival.co.uk

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