Events
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Discover an array of exhibitions, special projects, engaging community events and more at The Handbag Factory. As part of ASC Projects, we showcase diverse talent from our community and beyond, offering a wide range of events that cater to artists, creative professionals, and art enthusiasts alike. Our events offer something for everyone to enjoy and be inspired by.
We collaborate with partners, universities, and organisations to provide space for creative networking, skill-building, and training opportunities. [Contact us here].
Be sure to check back regularly for updates on our event schedule, and don’t forget to join our mailing list for exclusive invitations, news, and more!
See our past and upcoming events below.
The Stone and His Boy
Mateusz Szabłowski: The Stone and His Boy. The exhibition explores travel not merely as physical movement, but as a process of reconstructing identity through memory, objects, and images. Reversing the logic of the traditional Grand Tour, it focuses on peripheral, provincial, and displaced experiences rather than the metropolitan center.
Through painting, textiles, masks, and stones that act as guides rather than props, the show weaves together decolonial strategies, queer experience, and Central and Eastern European perspectives. Staged in a former handbag factory in Vauxhall - a neighbourhood rich in London’s queer cultural history - the space is transformed into the personal archive and cabinet of curiosities of an artist-traveller-collector.
24/7
24/7 brings together new and recent works by three contemporary artists working within ASC Studios across London: Seungjo Jeong, Mizuki Tanahara, and Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson. Selected by judges Nicky Coutts and Danny Rolph as part of ASC’s 30th Anniversary Exhibition in 2025, the artists present distinct responses to the rhythms and frictions of contemporary existence.
Walls Breathe
This exhibition investigates the human body not as an isolated form, but as a fluid entity interconnected with its surroundings, infrastructure, memory, and community. It explores how individuals navigate unstable systems, adapt to shifting boundaries, and transform lived experiences into tools for survival. Ultimately, the showcase questions our agency within these complex environments, asking whether we will sustain the systems we inhabit or reshape them entirely.
Ballad of an Ordinary life
London-based contemporary artist and poet Martin Galton presents Ballad of an Ordinary Life, an exhibition exploring the space where poetry and visual art meet. Known for literally painting his poetry, Galton pairs original text with energetic imagery to form a hybrid discipline, neither purely poem nor painting, but a fresh expression of the everyday stuff of life.
Babel Babble
Inspired by the myth of the Tower of Babel, Babel Babble brings together the nineteen artists of the ‘Changeable Beast’ collective to explore the diverse languages of sculpture. The exhibition considers how artists communicate through distinct materials, objects, and forms, inviting viewers to discover whether these individual artistic voices form a cacophony, a conversation, or a symphony when brought together in a shared space.
Flow
Bringing together three artists whose work captures a frozen moment of flow, this exhibition explores liquid forms created through paint, solvents, water, and glazes. These fluid gestures invoke organic landscapes, from microbes to coral outcrops, inviting viewers into a meditative space where time suspends, offering release and profound peace in nature's sublime vastness.
Sequestered Spaces
Faris Nakamura and Bunga Yuridespita examine how physical and psychological spaces shape the Self. Through abstract sculpture, filmic projections, and performance, the artists transform the gallery into a dynamic microcosm of light, shadow, and reflection. By inviting viewers to peer into hidden architectural interiors and navigate liminal environments, the exhibition probes the boundaries between refuge, voyeurism, and surveillance, asking how we find sanctuary within personal and societal landscapes.
Materiality
No Place Art presents Edition Two | Materiality, a 10-day group exhibition bringing together 80 contemporary artists working across printmaking, painting, sculpture and mixed media.
Future Matter
Future Matter: Crafting Sustainable Futures is a curated exhibition presented by Nest – A Lab as part of the official London Design Festival 2026 programme. Curated by Emma (Xinyan) Gu, the exhibition brings together artists, designers, makers, material innovators and researchers to explore diverse approaches to sustainable materials, design and making.
Harnessing the Unmade
Presented by Sunra for London Design Festival 2026, Harnessing the Unmade explores how AI expands human creativity without replacing it. The exhibition showcases new works from Sunra Creative Partners alongside winning entries from the Sunra x LDF competition across film, art, design, and creative technology.
In Memoriam: Simon Jugovic Fink
In memoriam: Simon Jugovic Fink celebrates the life and work of Slovenian painter, poet and illustrator Simon Jugovic Fink, bringing together his London series Nine Words and Kinky Streets of London, alongside self-portraits, animations and archival material.
Presented in the city where these works were created, the exhibition invites visitors to discover Simon's distinctive artistic vision.
Between Ritual & Reality
Step into a powerful evening of art, atmosphere, and reflection at Between Ritual and Reality, a solo exhibition by a Luxembourgish Nigerian artist, based in Luxembourg, whose work navigates the layered spaces between heritage and contemporary life.
Origins
An exhibition featuring 15+ artists showcasing sculpture, installations and painting exploring heritage, memory and transformation.
The Wand in Hand
Bringing together artists from China, Britain, the United States, France, South Korea, Japan,Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and beyond, the exhibition spans painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, installation, performance, fashion, jewellery, and other artistic practices.
ASC Art Prize 2026 Exhibition
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the ASC Art Prize Exhibition 2026, a showcase celebrating the exceptional talent within our studio community. This year’s exhibition brings together ten standout artists, highlighting the diverse and vibrant contemporary art created across our studio buildings.
A Room for Unbecoming Women
A Room for Unbecoming Women is a group exhibition that creates an imagined intimate space for exploring diverse experiences of femininity, identity, and selfhood. Bringing together works by women and non-binary artists, the exhibition invites reflection on forms of becoming that exist beyond conventional expectations of femininity.
PJD London Exhibition
An exhibition of final-year major projects by graduating University of Gloucestershire Photojournalism and Documentary Photography students.
MA Photography Exhibition 2026
The MA Photography programme at Kingston School of Art supports the exploration of expanded photographic practices that engage with contemporary urgencies, personal narratives, and wider societal concerns. This exhibition presents a diverse body of work by Masters students whose projects challenge, question, and reimagine the role of the image in today's world.
STRANGERS: Emerging Bodies of Work
The Handbag Factory is delighted to host STRANGERS: Emerging Bodies of Work, an upcoming group exhibition in Gallery 2. Curated by Aaron Horton, this dynamic showcase brings together nine emerging artists exploring the diverse, profound, and multifaceted theme of "Bodies."
Parade!
Parade! is a celebration of the work created by students in their final year of Illustration Animation at Kingston School of Art.
The Impossible Places
From 25th June to 6th July, ASC Gallery will present The Impossible Places, a solo exhibition by Sara Sahores. Curated by Mora Pranteda, the exhibition marks the artist’s first solo presentation in the UK following her receipt of the ASC Award in 2025. Bringing together a new series of works, The Impossible Places explores uncertainty through different landscapes.
Fluid Architectures
Fluid Architectures – Poetics of the Self is an exhibition of performative, site-specific installations and performances by Lihong Bai, Lujane Pagganwala, and Vincenzo Muratore that explores how identity is fluid, ever-changing, and shaped by space and experience.
The Outsiders Art Club
The Outsiders Arts Club is a quarterly event in London for people who want to know more about art and who would like to buy some great, affordable pieces from emerging artists.
Somewhere Between Portals
Curated by Becca Pelly-Fry in Gallery 2, Somewhere Between Portals marks Naomi Avsec’s profound return to public practice, featuring over 200 works that document her five-year recovery from a severe spinal fracture. This immersive sanctuary blends dreamlike imagery with restorative installations, transforming themes of pain and resilience into an illuminating, life-affirming environment for healing.
Synthetic Realities
Synthetic Realities presents a series of four visual works by artist Engin Demir, revolving around how contemporary subjectivity is reshaped in algorithmic systems.
Chromatic Terrains
"Chromatic Terrains" explores nostalgia as a tactile, atmospheric condition, mapping the landscapes of Central Asia through the analog photography of Arlau. The exhibition utilises a receding layout of colour, black-and-white, and risograph prints to mirror the way memory becomes approximate and felt over time.
SECRET
Secret reunites the multidisciplinary Six Artists group: Terry Barber, Caroline Ingham, Catherine James, Gill Lucas, Octavia Milner, and Tabitha Powles. Spanning painting, print, and sculpture, their latest works enter into a lively dialogue that explores the body, emotional loss, memory, and abstracted landscapes. Through precise, intentional materials and deeply personal, autobiographical storytelling, the artists translate their lived experiences into evocative works that connect individual perspectives with universal human sensations.
This, That and The Other
Occupying the vast Handbag Factory in Vauxhall, The London Group’s 2026 Annual utilizes two principal galleries for large-scale works and a third dedicated to experimental digital art. Beyond static displays, the venue’s scale supports a vibrant public programme of workshops, talks, and live performances.
Set against a global backdrop of "zero-sum" division and uncertainty, the exhibition highlights the collective’s century-long commitment to tolerance and openness. Featuring nearly one hundred members, the show proves that even in fragmented times, a plurality of voices creates a vital whole, affirming that the collective is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
The Outsiders Art Club
The Outsiders Arts Club is a quarterly event in London for people who want to know more about art and who would like to buy some great, affordable pieces from emerging artists.
Interlude
A debut exhibition of new paintings by Camberwell BA Hons Year 2 painting students.
Hesitant About Ladders
The exhibition is the Interim show for the first and second year Fine Art BA students at CGLAS. We are providing our own alcoholic drinks for the PV, and have been sponsored by the local pub (The Old Red Lion) who are contributing to this.
Desire Unbound: The Evolution of Desire in Art
Desire Unbound explores the evolution of longing, from the idealized mythologies of the Renaissance to the subversive, identity-driven perspectives of contemporary art. Discover how desire remains a powerful, evolving force in the human experience.
Outsiders, Elsewhere
In Outsiders, Elsewhere, experimental filmmaker Xiaohan Luo redefines sound as a physical presence rather than just an audible one. Drawing from her own experience with hearing loss, Luo’s films capture the "vibrations, movement, and light" that signal sound’s existence in the world. Through direct observation of public spaces—from riversides to stations—this exhibition invites viewers to navigate environments where sound is felt and seen long before it is heard.
All Our Yesterdays
All Our Yesterdays presents a selection of new paintings by Katya Granova, accompanied by the artist's solo performance within the exhibition space. Granova's paintings begin with old photographs from anonymous family albums, state archives, and flea markets across different countries. Using energetic brushwork and vibrant colour, Granova responds to those moments from the unknown, unreachable past, disrupting and reanimating someone’s yesterdays, the fragile substance of someone else’s life.