Look Out

Somerset, UK (August 2026): CLOSE reveals details of LOOK OUT, a group exhibition
running from 12 September to 31 October 2026 at CLOSE's Somerset gallery. Bringing
together artists of different generations, all living and working in Britain, the exhibition
traces a century of artistic engagement with the land. Selected works by Ivon Hitchens (1893 to 1979) are shown alongside new and recent work by Saad Qureshi, Magnus
Hammick, David Abbott, Dien Berziga, Christabel Blackburn, Sarah Gillespie, Lee
Johnson, Charlotte Keates, Rob Lyon, Katherine Perrins, Ged Quinn, Myrna Quiñonez
and Harriet White. Spanning painting, sculpture, drawing and installation, the exhibition reveals landscape as both a physical reality and a psychological space.

At a moment when the world feels increasingly unstable, environmentally, politically and socially, our internal landscapes are also shifting. The certainty of familiar structures and beliefs is continually challenged, leaving many of us searching for points of connection and grounding. Look Out proposes that nature and the changing seasons remain among the few constants we can rely upon. Landscape, in all its forms, becomes a source of comfort, continuity and belonging, a place where we can orient ourselves amidst uncertainty.

As founder of CLOSE and Co-Chair of Somerset Art Works, Freeny Yianni continues to
champion a vision of art that is deeply rooted in place while remaining open to wider
conversations about culture, ecology and community. She says: “Landscape is never
simply what we see before us. It is what we remember, what we carry with us and what we hope for. In an era of continual change, the rhythms of nature remind us that
transformation is not only inevitable but essential. The works in Look Out invite us to
pause, reconnect with the world around us and find our place within it once more.”