Exhibition displays 533 creative streaks (From Witney Gazette)

Exhibition displays 533 creative streaks

6:53am Wednesday 16th January 2008 in Headlines By Fran Bardsley

THE walls of internationally -acclaimed gallery Modern Art Oxford are normally lined with work by the best national and international contemporary artists.

But for five weeks, the Pembroke Street gallery has become the focus of an innovative exhibition - where anyone, provided they were over 18, could enter a piece of their work in any medium to go on display.

Among the 533 artists exhibiting is Rebecca Goldberg, 35, from Jericho, who entered a painting of a girl with a fish. She said: "It's really nice to see it up with so many works which make a contrast with it.

"It's great to have an open submission exhibition because it just opens it up to so many more people, people who would not have that opportunity to have their work represented in a gallery this way."

Retired art teacher Bernard Hickey, 75, of Wheatley, sent in a painting of the woods near Watlington in autumn.

He said: "I'm very privileged to be chosen to be in this room. I have not seen all the rooms yet, but quite a lot of my students are showing and I think it is a wonderful idea just to look around and see such a variety of work."

Twenty-one-year-old Dan Charlton, of Marston, said he decided to enter his picture of rapper Kanye West after his mother persuaded him to. He said: "I think my mum was a bit more excited than I was, but it's nice to see it on display.

"It's good that it is everyday people's work as well as a few artists. There are some I like, and some I'm not such a fan of."

Part-time Newsquest Oxfordshire night watchman Michael Bridger, 49, from Barton, Oxford, has an abstract painting in the exhibition He said: "The whole idea is like a work of art, a cross-section and I like the context of that. It just shows that art is a matter of taste and I like that. And obviously everybody is very happy to be a part of it."

Grandpont-based artist Emma Reynard's piece, Babes in the Wood, has been placed in one of the smaller galleries. She said: "I love how they have put it in this room because it is quite subtle, and it is quite muted in here.

"I was a bit worried it was going to have lots of colour around it, but it is really good.

"I am impressed by the whole exhibition and quite surprised that there was so much here."

The Oxford Open runs until Sunday, February 17. Each week a different guest selector will choose favourite pieces, then host a discussion about why they were chosen.

The first was Blur bassist Alex James, who made his choices yesterday.