Opening Event: 5.30-7pm Monday 2 September 2024

15 local artists contribute to this show which features artworks with a Canterbury focus done in styles such as magic realism, the sublime, the ethereal and etherealism.

This is a show full of contradictions. Its very title is oxymoronic: Ethereal relates to the unearthly and the celestial while Canterbury is rooted in our place. Hence, there are some ways in which the four main styles are completely opposite to one another, while in other ways, they intersect and share tendencies. There are artworks full of wonder, awe, isolation, mystery, infinity, alienation, overwhelming terror, dreamed realities and strange juxtapositions. Past and present merge, objects are invented, the airy is expressed through poetic imagination and the realistic and precise meet the metaphysical.

What does all this add up to? Idealised environments, nature that threatens us, recognisable landmarks made strange and strange creatures in recognisable landscapes, some riding moas… Ultimately new ways of exploring where we live with magnificent local artists.

Artists include: Alice Tulkens, Anya Diepold, Ashleigh Min, Catherine Coster, Cheriene Singer, Chris Quinn, Hadani Woodruff, Hazel Rae, John Maillard, Jordan Willan, Lorraine Frances-Rees, Paige Officer, Ross Ellen, Scarlett Giffin Munn and Tracey Perrin.