Open for Art 2026: Headspace

Headspace is a group exhibition about brains doing their thing—looping, spiralling, overthinking, underthinking, and occasionally making something out of the chaos. It explores mental states, neurodivergence, and self-understanding through art that leans somewhere between therapy, play, and “what happens if I just try this?”
Featuring works by Katy Pike, David Kudaisi, Brenda Goodchild, and Ashley Deyo, the exhibition brings together four artists poking around in their own minds and turning what they find into paintings, sculptures, collages, and other slightly strange objects. Expect feelings, but also jokes. Expect mess, but also moments that feel weirdly precise.
Across the show, things repeat, morph, and reappear—faces, shapes, symbols, half-familiar forms—like thoughts you can’t quite shake. Some works feel careful and intentional, others feel like they just sort of happened (but in a good way). Together, they map out the odd, sometimes contradictory ways we make sense of being alive.
Headspace doesn’t try to fix anything or tie things up neatly. It’s more interested in sitting with the noise, following a thought too far, or making something just to see what it does. Think of it less as answers, and more as a collection of minds mid-process.
Come in, have a look around, and maybe recognise a bit of your own head in there.

All the events at the Open for Art Festival are free to attend, there is an option to add a donation to help support the festival if you would like to and feel able to.

Just drop in. The exhibition is led at The Turbine house, Blakes Lock - part of the Riverside museum

OPEN FOR ART

19 JUNE - 28 JUNE 2026

REFLECT This year marks 10 years of Open for Art — a decade of artists, makers, communities, ideas and shared experiences in Reading’s largest town centre creative festival. As we celebrate this milestone, our theme invites everyone to pause and consider how creativity emerges from people coming together — experimenting, making, and reflecting. Our theme for 2026 is REFLECT.

For 10 days, we’re inviting Reading to slow down and seek out pop-up art in shops and businesses, encounter artists as they work, take part in creative sessions, and join conversations about how reflection shapes artistic practice.

Come and REFLECT with us this summer.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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