Our country wide tour of ‘The Nereids’ continues, and appropriately, this time they will be exhibited swimming in a unique location: Mosely Road Baths, 497 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham. B12 9BX

The Nereids, attendants of Poseidon, were revered by the citizens of Ancient Greece and Rome as the benign goddesses of the sea’s rich bounty and protectors of sailors and fishermen.  Numbering around 50, each Nereid represented a personification of a particular attribute of the sea.  They were renowned for their beauty and were commonly found frolicking amongst the waves of the Mediterranean, and the Aegean Sea. 

This free exhibition, at The Mosely Road Baths, presents our artists’ interpretations of Nereids in carved stone, wood, etching, and letter press print.

Private View from 6pm to 8pm on Monday 20th February. Please let us know if you would like to attend by emailing info@letteringartstrust.org.uk

All works will be for sale from the venue or via our website.

As part of the exhibition programme the Lettering Arts Trust has organised a family workshop during half-term (on Friday 24 February) in which lettering artist Chrissie Nichols will encourage participants to interpret and create their own Nereids, with a focus on lettering.  For more details please see our workshop page.

Pictured in thumbnail: Leagore by Zoe Singleton

Thursday 10 November – Wednesday 16 November

Open daily | 11am – 5pm
Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings

We are offering a range of unique hand crafted gifts, prints and original artworks, by the UK’s finest letter-carving artists, perfect for the home or garden. Stock up on Letter press cards, including Christmas cards.

Please join us for drinks on Thursday 10th November, when we will be open late until 8pm.

Pictured: Robin by Louise Tiplady. Gilded riven slate

A collection of hand carved pieces, prints and other lettered artworks, perfect gifts for those who love letter carving, hand printing, typography and good design.

The UK is at risk of losing a quarter of its mammal species according to a report authored by 70 British wildlife charities. The Wild Cat, common Dormouse and the Greater Mouse-eared Bat are among those species teetering on the edge of disappearing. In the State of Nature Report 2019, the first of its kind conducted in partnership with the government, confirms what we are already becoming aware of - the undeniable fact that nature and resources are in decline. 41 percent of UK species studied have noticeably fewer numbers than when the rigorous scientific study began in the 1970s. Reading the report should alarm us all. 15 percent of species native to the UK - nearly 1,200 - are threatened with extinction partly because of agriculture management and climate change. Habitats are disappearing as we surge forward with technology and intensive farming. Hedgerows are now becoming rarer in our countryside. Lowland wetlands are threatened by drainage, water pollution, air pollution, peat extraction - the list goes on and on.

This exhibition is a visual call to action - a reminder of what we could possibly lose. Over 30 artists, established and young upcoming students have taken part, working on stone, wood and paper to highlight the plight of some of the resources, habitats and species that we are in danger of losing in the UK.

There is a full colour catalogue to accompany the exhibition available.

All our exhibitions are free to enter

LIMNOREIA by Louise Tiplady

“Simon Lewty & The Nereids” is a collaboration between The Lettering Arts Trust and Art First. The exhibition features major works by Simon Lewty, and is accompanied by individual depictions of the mythical Nereids created by 26 artists represented by the Lettering Arts Trust. 

Simon Lewty’s mastery of the calligraphic, the palimpsest, graffiti and scripts of many kinds, is matched by his generation of poetic content. His hand-written texts combine with figurative imagery to create a dream like reality. In recent years, a group of drawings have emerged, inspired by his love of Greek mythology.  

The Nereids, in particular, captured Lewty’s imagination. They are known as the fifty benign sea goddesses which symbolised everything that is beautiful and kind about the sea. “Simon Lewty & The Nereids” is a collaboration between The Lettering Arts Trust and Art First. The exhibition features major works by Simon Lewty, and is accompanied by individual depictions of the mythical Nereids created by 26 artists represented by the Lettering Arts Trust. 

Sometimes Lewty coats tissue paper in white gesso onto which he applies softly inked lettering. The engaging but illegible lettering he uses in some of his work is known as tachygraphy, or Shelton’s shorthand - used in the 17th Century by civil servants, in particular by Samuel Pepys for his diaries, and mastered by Lewty over a period of years. These elegant mysterious marks serve as a secret language, in this case - ‘a kind of wordless sea-language’ which he developed in 2019 as an evocation of the voices of the Nereids, ‘who may cry in the murmurs of the waves’.  

Simon Lewty & The Nereids runs from 15th May to 4th July 2021.