Category: News

n the first of his two-part series for MAO Assembly, Oxford-based musician, Martin Andrews aka Octavia Freud reports on music in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part one sees Martin speak to DJ and electronic artist Timothy J Fairplay about his experience of social isolation, exploring the question, ‘how do you stay creative as a… Continue reading MAO Assembly – Isolation Music Diaries, Part One

For the fourth in our #MAOarchive series, we take you back to 1998 when Mona Hatoum exhibited at Modern Art Oxford. Born in Beirut to a Palestinian family, the artist Mona Hatoum has lived in London since 1975. The outbreak of civil war in Lebanon delayed her return from what was meant to be a… Continue reading From the MAO archive: Mona Hatoum in 1998

If you’re a regular visitor to the gallery you’ll know Deb Pill from our Front of House team. On weekends, Deb is a Creative Practitioner for our Creative Space, and she works in the Shop too. In this blog post we share her artwork Reaching Out, alongside her reflections on the interactions she was missing most in… Continue reading Creative Connections: Reaching Out by Deb Pill

Interested in contemporary art and digital culture? Art Historian and Modern Art Oxford’s Exhibitions Administrator Jess Robertson has curated an introductory reading list for you.  Many of these texts are available to read for free online, or to download as ebooks – perfect for isolation reading! The list includes key texts from artists, curators and… Continue reading Contemporary Art and Digital Culture ~ Reading List

Since 1966, Modern Art Oxford has hosted avant-garde artists, performances and art forms. In this third post in our #MAOarchive series we look back to a pioneering show in 1990. At a time when video art remained marginalised in the art world, Signs of the Times was the first major exhibition of British sculpture and… Continue reading From the MAO archive: Signs of the Times in 1990

Take five minutes out of your working day to breathe, listen and find a moment of calm. Yoga teacher and artist Najia Bagi leads you through a 5 minute meditation that you can do wherever you are, without changing out of your work clothes. Najia encourages you to hit pause for just a few minutes… Continue reading Take a Break and Listen – 5 Minute Meditation with Najia Bagi

Read Laura Purseglove’s introduction to the concept of Flow state and its relation to the upcoming exhibition Flow at the Glass Tank. Laura is our Creative Associate (Participation) and is working with Modern Art Oxford’s volunteers as they develop this exhibition. Our creative process is unique to us. We all have our own ways of… Continue reading Flow and Human Flourishing by Creative Associate Laura Purseglove

For the second blog in our #MAOarchive series we take you back to 1966, the year the gallery opened. Space Place: Constructed Space Participation was to be the gallery’s first self-generated exhibition. In the words of art critic Andrew Forge, it declared the director’s intention to make the museum “a place where things can happen… music… Continue reading From the MAO archive: Space Place in 1966

The team at Modern Art Oxford are constantly grateful for the fascinating exchanges we have online with creative individuals. One of these creatives is Buckinghamshire-based artist Saskia Saunders. We first met Saunders on Instagram through our digital project, MAO Assembly just a week or so before the COVID-19 virus truly affected our lives in the… Continue reading MAO Assembly: How to create your own positive affirmation

“I found June – I saw that little girl with her parents – and I thought “I know that feeling”.” When artist and photographer Tony Lorenzo bought 5 random old photographs from a flea market in London he could not have expected the result. Realising that 2 of the 5 photographs were pictures of the… Continue reading Finding June: A Photographer’s Remarkable Discovery