From the 19th of March through to the 19th of April 2026, ‘The Story of Art‘ explores how contemporary artists engage with narrative, text, and storytelling across multiple mediums. This exhibition brings together practitioners who use books as literal materials alongside those whose works unfold through powerful visual narratives, creating a dialogue about how stories shape meaning, memory, and human experience.
In an age of rapid digital communication, there’s something profoundly affecting about encountering artists who engage deeply with physical books and sustained narrative. This exhibition celebrates that encounter, inviting viewers to slow down and discover how visual art can tell stories as powerfully as written words.
Alison Stockmarr’s practice centres on transforming vintage books into three-dimensional artworks that honour their literary origins whilst creating entirely new visual experiences. Her pieces exploring classics like Shakespeare, Cricket Form at a Glance, and R is for Romance demonstrate her ability to distil the essence of a text into sculptural form. These aren’t mere illustrations but genuine responses to literature, creating bridges between reading and viewing.
Similarly, Thurle Wright’s text-based mixed media works incorporate written fragments into layered compositions that reward close examination. Pieces like ‘Creation’, ‘Composition’, and ‘Italian Mnemonic’ demonstrate how language can function as visual element whilst retaining its capacity to communicate meaning through words.
Not every narrative requires text. Lucy Dorothy Nichols’ mixed media works tell stories through imagery alone – her flying birds, books, and musical notes create visual metaphors for freedom, migration, and the transportive power of art itself. Works like ‘The Secret Life of Birds’ and ‘The Birdcage Parade in the Sky’ invite viewers to construct their own narratives from her evocative imagery.
Marie Robinson’s oil paintings similarly rely on visual storytelling, with pieces like ‘The Charm of a Goldfinch’ and ‘Tales of the River Bank’ creating narrative moments that feel both specific and universal. Her work demonstrates how a single carefully composed image can suggest entire stories, leaving space for viewers’ imaginations to fill in the details.
Emma Jean Kemp brings a different scale to the exhibition with her collectable book sculptures, priced from £275. Pieces like ‘One Moment: Cooking for Kings‘, ‘Moment of Fun: A Town Like Alice‘, and ‘Up and Over: I Believe‘ demonstrate how narrative can be distilled into miniature form without losing impact. These small sculptures function as three-dimensional bookmarks, physical reminders of specific texts and the memories associated with reading them.
Katherine Kingdon’s ceramic pieces add another dimension to the exhibition’s exploration of narrative. Her teapots, jugs, and vessels often incorporate literary references or storytelling elements, with pieces like ‘Edgar Allen Poe’ and ‘Head Full of Music Teapot’ demonstrating how functional objects can carry narrative weight. At accessible price points starting from £55, these pieces make collecting narrative-driven art achievable for those just beginning their collections.
Antoine Josse and Marcelle Milo-Gray round out the exhibition with their distinctive approaches to visual narrative. Josse’s poetic mixed media works create dreamlike scenarios where figures float through impossible spaces, suggesting stories about connection, isolation, and the human condition. Milo-Gray’s oil paintings like ‘Tea With Mother’ and ‘Dartmoor Spring’ capture specific moments that hint at larger narratives about relationships, place, and memory.
‘The Story of Art‘ ultimately asks viewers to consider how contemporary art engages with narrative across different forms and scales. Whether through direct incorporation of text, visual metaphor, or carefully composed scenes, each artist in this exhibition demonstrates that storytelling remains central to how we make and understand art. Visit us at 14 King’s Parade, Cambridge, between 19th March and 19th April to experience these narrative explorations firsthand.
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From the 19th of March through to the 19th of April 2026, ‘The Story of
