Posts by Melanie Ashton

  • OPEN CALL: Layers of London
    by Melanie Ashton

    A collaborative project by General Assembly & Polly Bennett’s POLBEN's Pigment.

     

    General Assembly and POLBEN’s Pigments invite artists to apply for a collaborative exhibition exploring London through colour, material, and creative interpretation.

     

    Polly Bennett is a pigment maker, alchemist and environmental artist based in Kent. She founded POLBEN’s Pigment in 2020, originally transforming earth and plants into sustainable artist’s pigments and inks, and then branching out to lake, bone and synthesised pigments. Her colours carry the histories and geographies of their origins, reinforcing the connection between man and land.

     

     

    Selected artists will receive a set of 10 handmade pigments created by Polly (POLBEN’s Pigment). Each pigment has been produced from materials collected in, or historically associated with, London, including mineral, bone, lake pigments, and synthesised copper.

     

    Artists are invited to use these pigments to create new artworks:

    • In any medium (e.g. two-dimensional, three-dimensional, textiles, ceramics, etc.)

    • Responding to London - its geology, history, culture, people, stories, or atmosphere.

     

    Selected Artists Receive:

    • A boxed set of 10 site-sensitive pigments in 30ml glass vials and corresponding colour chart from

    POLBEN’s Pigment

    • The opportunity to exhibit in a group show at General Assembly in September 2026

    • Polly’s advice on pigment usage

     

    Eligibility:

    • Open to emerging and established artists

    • Artists working in any medium

    • Artists must be able to create work using the provided pigments in the time period

     

    To apply, please submit:

    • Artist statement (max 250 words)

    • Proposal or idea for how you might use the pigments (max 500 words)

    • 3 - 5 examples of recent work

    • Website & Instagram

    Application Fee: £25

    Applications must come in one single pdf

     

    Dates:

    • Applications Open: 13 April

    • Application Deadline: 30 April

    • Artists Informed By: 15 May

    • Pigments Collected from General Assembly in London: from 15 May 2026

    • Exhibition: Layers of London, General Assembly 1-30  September 2026

    • Applications to be sent to Anna Austria: Residency@generalassemblylondon.com

     

  • by Melanie Ashton
    In this series, we invite residents to reflect on their time at Marnay, from first impressions of the landscape to the subtle (and sometimes seismic) shifts in their creative process. Starting this series with Mia Graham who was a General Assembly 2024 resident.
  • by Melanie Ashton

    In this series, we invite residents to reflect on their time at Marnay, from first impressions of the landscape to the subtle (and sometimes seismic) shifts in their creative process. Starting this series with Mia Graham who was a General Assembly 2024 resident.

  • by Melanie Ashton

    In this series, we invite residents to reflect on their time at Marnay, from first impressions of the landscape to the subtle (and sometimes seismic) shifts in their creative process. Starting this series with Mia Graham who was a General Assembly 2024 resident.

  • by Melanie Ashton

    In this series, we invite residents to reflect on their time at Marnay, from first impressions of the landscape to the subtle (and sometimes seismic) shifts in their creative process. Starting this series with Mia Graham who was a General Assembly 2024 resident.

  • by Melanie Ashton

    In this series, we invite residents to reflect on their time at Marnay, from first impressions of the landscape to the subtle (and sometimes seismic) shifts in their creative process. Starting this series with Mia Graham who was a General Assembly 2024 resident.