Exhibition at the Cwtsh, Newport

I was really chuffed to be asked to exhibit my Welsh From Everywhere / Cymry O Bob Man work at the community run Cwtsh Arts Centre in Newport. The exhibition runs from March 4th to April 16th 2023. The show features 36 photographic portraits of people from around the Newport area.

My involvement with the Cwtsh extends to before they opened, where I was asked to help come up with a name for the Arts Centre, then design the branding. I suggested 'Cwtsh' and after beating away objections to the use of a Welsh name from a short lived Cymraeg-phobic volunteer ("Nobody around here speaks Welsh!" — "Are you sure? I live a stone's throw away and I speak Welsh, as do my kids and all their friends").

Since last exhibiting this work - at the (ffotogallery) Diffusion International Festival of Photography in 2021, I've added a fair few images to the project, but this exhibition also sees the first showing of 2 groups of colour portraits from the project that have not been shown previously  — photos from the Asian Men's Club and Pensioners Lunch Clubs at Community House.

Launch Event

We had a great launch event on Sunday 5th March, with barely room to move inside. Many thanks to all that came to support me. Special thanks go to amazing photographer John Briggs from the Cwtsh. John invited me to exhibit and supported me throughout the process - including helping us hang the work (thanks to Marion too) . He also gave a lovely speech and said some really humbling things about the importance of the work that I've been creating for the last few years. I also gave a little speech and answered a few questions from the audience.

Here's a selection of some of the portraits on show at Cwtsh.

Cwtsh Exhibition

Images from my Welsh From Everywhere / Cymry o Bob Man exhibition at the Cwtsh, Newport, 2023.