Art Archive

This archive brings together highlights from our art & digital culture programme from each year, going back to the opening of the building in 2009.

2021

Artists’ Film Night - selected by Beth Kettel

Tue 16 Nov, 8.30pm | Free

For this screening, artist Beth Kettel has selected a diverse programme of contemporary and 20th Century artists’ film and video in response to her exhibition The Sound of Somebody Changing Their Mind.

Online / Vital Capacities – Exhibition

Available online now

Vital Capacities is an accessible, purpose-built digital residency space – the resulting exhibition from the June 2021 residencies is showing online now.

2020

Online / Sian Fan: Downtime

Available Now

Downtime is an interactive online artwork by Sian Fan – a quiet spot in hyperspace to take some time out.

screen_share (01)

Fri 25 Sep - Fri 25 Sep

screen_share is an for artists making screen-based work of any kind to come together, share what they’ve made and talk about it in a friendly and informal environment.

Online / The Idle Index

Online now

The Idle Index is an exhibition and online project featuring screensavers created by artists based in, or with links to, Leicester.

Exhibition / Thanatos

Fri 10 Jan – Sun 23 Feb

A multisensory installation centring on Thanatos, an original perfume that evokes the scent of a decomposing body discovered in a woodland.

Festival / The Spark Festival: Plug and Play

Sat 15 – Sun 16 Feb, 11am – 4pm

The Spark Festival returns to Phoenix, taking over the building with a host of cutting edge interactive artworks, creative games and amazing animations.

2019

For Families / VR Playground

19 – 21 Feb 2019

Don a virtual reality headset, jump on a swing and get ready to be transported into an exhilarating virtual adventure in the VR Playground by Thrill Laboratory.

Exhibition / Bill Balaskas - Farewell to Thee

7 Mar – 14 Apr 2019

Farewell to Thee is an installation by internationally acclaimed artist Bill Balaskas, inspired by a nuclear missile alert that was mistakenly issued in the State of Hawaii on 13 January 2018.

Exhibition / Mario Klingemann - Interstitial Space

17 May – 2 Jun 2019

Acclaimed German artist Mario Klingemann created a new interactive installation for the Art-AI festival, placing the viewer in the middle of an AI system where two neural networks are pitted against each other.

Exhibition / Langoors in the Labyrinth

19 Jul – 18 Aug 2019

Langoors in the Labyrinth is an experimental game by Indian independent game developers Studio Oleomingus that reflects on memory, exploring how stories and histories are formed and recorded

Exhibition / Going, Gone

23 Aug – 3 Nov 2019

Jerwood/FVU Awards 2019: 'Going, Gone' featured two moving-image installations by Webb-Ellis and Richard Whitby, the recipients of this sixth edition of the Awards.

Exhibition / Three Breaths in Empty Space

19 Nov – 31 Dec 2019

Three Breaths in Empty Space is an audio-visual installation by Bret Battey, commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our move to the Cultural Quarter

2018

Exhibition / Changing Places Exhibition

18 Jan – 11 Mar 2018

Changing Places is an exhibition of artists' video curated by Film and Video Umbrella linking the industrial transformations occurring across South Asia with sites of historic significance in Britain.

Exhibition / Pinar Yoldas - The Kitty AI

30 Apr – 13 May 2018

The Kitty AI: Artificial Intelligence for Governance is a video installation set in a speculative future in which an artificial intelligence in the form of a kitten has replaced the governing elite.

Exhibition / Future Aleppo

20 – 24 Aug 2018

Exhibited as part of Journeys Festival International 2018, Future Aleppo blends virtual reality with paper models to rebuild the devastated Syrian city.

Exhibition / Streets Paved with Pearl

24 Nov – 23 Dec 2018

Streets Paved with Pearl brought together three works, two created by artist Di Fang, and a third by Di Fang in collaboration with Jiu Society, an artist group based in Shenzhen, China.

2017

Exhibition / Playback

9 Jun – 2 Jul 2017

Discover the filmmakers of tomorrow with Playback – an interactive exhibition showcasing award-winning new short films from across the country

Exhibition / Superflux - Mangala For All

16 Aug – 24 Sep 2017

Mangala For All is an installation by Anglo-Indian design studio Superflux, exploring what India’s space programme means to its people - shedding light on ideas of nationhood, geopolitics and the space race

Exhibition / Wu Chi-Yu – Reading List

5 Oct – 13 Nov 2017

Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Yu explores censorship and national identity in this new film installation Reading List, commissioned by Phoenix and Videoclub in association with Osmosis Festival Taipei.

2016

Exhibition / The Canvas of Resonance

19 Jan – 20 Feb 2016

The Canvas of Resonance is an installation by Kenny Wong inspired by the way metal sheets were used to produce sound effects in the pre-digital age.

Performance / Canary Songs

23 – 24 April 2016

Canary Songs is a sound and choral performance by the artist Teresa Dillon, inspired by the women who worked in UK munitions factories during WW1.

Outdoors / Ocean of Light at Diwali

16 – 17 Oct 2016

Phoenix is excited to bring Ocean of Light - an unforgettable experience which immerses the viewer in colour and light - to this year’s Diwali Lights Switch-On.

Exhibition / Silent Signal

15 Dec 2016 – 29 Jan 2017

Silent Signal is an ambitious group exhibition that brings together six artists working with animation and six leading biomedical scientists.

2015

Exhibition / The Fading Afterglow of Creation

10 Apr – 8 May 2015

The Fading Afterglow of Creation brings together the work of Leicester-based artists Dave Briggs and Jack Squires, and explores the ways fact and fiction combine to shape how we see ourselves in an increasingly technology-driven world.

Art & Screen / Both Sides Now 2

7 Jul 2015

Both Sides Now explores the political and social connections and differences between the UK and China & Hong Kong, bringing together artworks that investigate nationhood, individuality and power.

Exhibition / Shout Out!

23 July – 24 Aug 2015

Shout Out! UK Pirate Radio in the 1980s is an archival exhibition that looks back at the early tower block pirate radio movement that emerged in the UK during the 1980s, prompting a new musical phenomenon that would change the face of British music as we know it.

Exhibition / Whose Gaze is it Anyway?

27 Aug – 24 Sep 2015

'Whose Gaze Is It Anyway?' is an exhibition that looks at the history of Arab pop culture through printed matter – posters, notebooks, diaries and book covers – as well as film and video.

Exhibition / The Gain Line

1 Oct – 29 Nov 2015

'The Gain Line' is a moving-image art work by Ravi Deepres, commissioned to coincide with the Rugby World Cup.

2014

Exhibition / Site Exploration

10 – 28 Feb 2014

Site Exploration is an exhibition looking at the way artists use technology to explore our relationship with the environment and the natural physical world

Performance / MSHR

22 Feb 2014

Phoenix and Two Queens present an installation and performance by Oregon-based artist duo MSHR.

Exhibition / River Studies

27 Jun – 8 Aug 2014

River Studies by Michael Aschauer is an ongoing project that explores how rivers affect people and cultures.

Exhibition / The New Incunable Print Shop

Thu 6 – Sat 29 Nov 2014

The New Incunable Print Shop was an exhibition and working print shop designed by artist collective Juneau Projects where visitors could 3D-print woodblock stamps based on their own drawings and use them to create original prints and artworks.

2013

Festival / Code Control

22 – 24 Mar 2013

Phoenix is partnering with San Francisco software company Cycling ’74 to host Code Control, its second international festival for artists and musicians to explore software which can be used to create unique sounds, stunning visuals and interactive digital art.

Exhibition / Dave Griffiths - Extinction Event

12 Apr – 24 May 2013

After studying the distant cosmos with scientists at the University of Leicester, artist Dave Griffiths has been inspired to create Extinction Event, a new artwork commissioned specially for this exhibition at Phoenix.

For Families / Spark at Phoenix

29 May – 2 Jun 2013

At Phoenix we’ll be sparking children’s imaginations with a programme packed full of amazing experiences, marvellous activities and family friendly films handpicked for the digital generation.

Exhibition / The Onesie Cycle VIP

9 Aug – 7 Sep 2013

Phoenix is working with Two Queens gallery to present a solo show by Benedict Drew, one of the UK’s most exciting new contemporary artists.

Exhibition / Layla Curtis - Antipodes

18 Oct – 21 Dec 2013

Live webcams feeding images from opposite ends of the globe are the subject of this stunning new exhibition - part of Layla Curtis’s ongoing interactive online artwork Antipodes.

Live / Pixel Pyros

Sun 17 Nov 2013

PixelPyros is a virtual pyrotechnics display mounted onto a massive 60-foot wide screen using state-of-the-art projectors and lasers. Part of Light the Night 2013

2012

Installation / Gowati

16 Jun – 23 Jul 2012

An inspiring multi-screen installation that re-imagines classical Indian performance for the digital age. Part of An Indian Summer 2012

Exhibition / Intuition and Ingenuity

Mon 8 Oct – Fri 9 Nov 2012

Intuition and Ingenuity explores the enduring influence of Alan Turing – the father of modern computing - on art and contemporary culture.

Masterclass / Algorithmic Dimension

Mon 19 Nov 2012

Three pioneers in the world of digital arts will lead a Masterclass in this free event for artists, students and anyone interested in learning more about the history and practice of this field.

Exhibition / Symbiotic

19 Nov – 4 Dec 2012

Symbiotic is an exhibition where the artworks interact with each other, as well as their visitors.

2009 - 2011

Exhibition / The Cutting Room Presents

6 – 23 October 2011

The Cutting Room present David Blandy's "Barefoot Lone Pilgrim, Issue 1+2 : Origins" and Hetain Patel’s new film ‘Kanku Raga' an exciting mix of reality and fantasy in the cube gallery