The HappeningInMCR Team are back with a new themed exhibition in their Community Micro-Gallery, featuring 15 talented local artists each showcasing a piece of art responding to the theme of Spring!

After combing through 60 colourful submissions, the team is excited to present the 16 captivating artworks chosen from 15 emerging local artists. The exhibition showcases a range of mediums including acrylic paintings, riso prints, collage work and digital prints! Head to the Community Micro-Gallery on the ground floor via the Tib Street entrance!

Below, you can read the featured artists’ information and statements. If you are interested in purchasing any works which are for sale, please contact the artist or happeninginmcr@gmail.com. Both HappeningInMCR and Afflecks take no commision, so all proceeds go towards the artist and their practice.

Exhibiting Artist Statements:

Bom Carrot 봄캐롯

Instagram: @bomcarrotart 

Those colours made for you!, 2025, Korean ink painting and coloured with digital media, 33cm x33cm, £45

Bom Carrot(봄캐롯) is a South Korean illustrator and painter who graduated from Seoul Chugye Art University and currently based in Todmorden. Her personal project involves capturing British traditions, folklore, livelihoods and nature of Northern UK including Manchester. Bom finds Spring to be the most exciting time for nature because of the special, rapid and dynamic energy it brings to the beginning of the year and to one's body and mindset. Bom Carrot’s artworks are created via combined hand painting with Korean ink and coloured with digital media to create artwork. “Those colours made for you” is inspired by flower shops that seem to pop up on the streets of Manchester and capture the joyful essence of people thinking of their loved ones and wanting to share it with them. That is the power of Spring love.

Bon Rocky (they/them)

Instagram: @itchythey

Guy, 2025, Acrylic Painting, 21cm x 15cm, £10 

Vibrant yellow backgrounds, full scalings of a scratchy boy sat with a tea cup, “guy” describes Spring as comforting and bright. There is an aspect of nostalgia as the subject inspects a chipped mug, exploring a curiosity in the old, embracing its warmth. The vibrant colouring yet suggests the brightness of the future; therefore, the piece, like spring, is a balance of old and new.

Fiona Turnbull (she/her)

Instagram: @_fiona4rt

Mr Puddles, 2025, Oil on wood, 27cm x 27cm x 6cm, Not for Sale

Fiona Turnbull is a 20 year old artist from the whimsical and rural town of Glastonbury in Somerset, where the surrounding forests, fields and folklore form the heart of her work. Currently studying fine art at the University of Salford, her practice revolves primarily around life and nature, using sustainable materials to create works themed around animals, plants and growth. She often contrasts bright colours and patterns, drawing in a more fantastical element into her work inspired by old pagan legends. The aim of her work is to encourage others to appreciate the earth's natural beauty, hopefully inspiring them to act with more care towards it.

Hazel Stileman

Instagram: @stileman.art

Lost Teddy, 2025, Acrylic on Canvas Board, 22cm x 17cm, £25

Hazel Stileman aims to translate everyday shared experiences and memorabilia into something more than it appears. Her practice primarily focuses on human connection to the urban environment and our collective experience in a space. Through archiving and creating something new from the discarded, she aims to bring life back into bleak and neglected landscapes, just as spring is about renewal and rebirth. Through painting abandoned objects, a moment of coincidental loss is transformed into something more meaningful. The objects that allude to its past owner’s identity and narrative may have been forgotten, but they still exist. Spring reminds us that no matter how no matter how bleak the winter can get, life persists - even in neglect and darker times, life holds beauty, it's just up to us to notice it around us.

Kay Bingham (they/her)

Instagram: @daffod.ily

The Herb Garden, 2025, Oil Pastel on Paper, 17cm x 22cm, £45 (including frame)

Kay Bingham (b. 2001) is a mixed media artist from Stockport whose work draws deeply from nature, animals, and the changing seasons. Their practice is rooted in storytelling — capturing moments of emotion, character, and quiet connection through expressive, often playful compositions. Kay chooses each medium instinctively, allowing the story or subject to guide the materials — whether it’s the softness of pastel, the energy of acrylic, or the precision of pencil and paint pen. Their pieces often explore the personalities of animals and the emotional tone of natural spaces, celebrating the small narratives unfolding all around us. In response to the theme of Spring, their work reflects growth, renewal, and the joyful presence of life returning.

Lottie Wright (she/her) 

Instagram: @wottiewright

Miow in the Plants, 2025, Digital Illustration, 12.7cm x 17.78cm, £35 

Lottie Wright is an illustrator based in Manchester, originally from Herefordshire. Her work typically includes bright colours and feline creatures, which celebrates the unusual patterns and shapes we find in everyday wildlife. “Miow in the Plants” is visually rooted in the season of spring, showing off fresh greenery, pastel colours and vibrant wildflowers.

Matty Wild (they/them)

Instagram: @mattyrwild

God in the TV, 2024, Risograph Print on Paper

Matty Wild is an illustrator who works mainly in printmaking and ceramics. Themes of their work range from explorations of gender and sexuality, with a heavy focus on human figure to less figurative work focusing on topics of mental health, activism and navigating the world as a queer person. They began with a more realistic approach to their style but have since begun to branch out to a more illustrative style to their work. Their inspiration comes from many places, such as personal and shared experiences. Matty’s work fits the theme of 'spring' by showing a lamb looking into a hypnotic TV, which is a commentary on their generation being less connected to nature and more focused on technology.

Megan Fletcher (she/her)

Instagram: @megan_fletcher_art

Dandelion, 2024, Printing ink on yellow card, 20cm x 19cm, £10

Megan Fletcher is a disabled illustrator and maker based in Greater Manchester whose work explores identity through embodied practices such as printmaking, collaging, drawing, and model-making. With a basis in both research and introspection, she aims to capture life through a marginalised lens, emphasising the physical process of creating through playful methods and experimentation. This piece uses a dandelion as a metaphor for invisible disability, simultaneously embodying resilience and fragility. They're a common sight during Spring - Megan wants to draw attention to the beauty of these common, and often overlooked, flowers, whilst referencing the process of flourishing into your identity given the right conditions for growth.

Mon Cheung

Instagram: @mon.cheung.comics

Cat in the spring cloud, 2025 Digital art /Krita, 28cm x 33cm, £40

Drawing inspiration from the ever-changing nature of the sky, Cat in the spring cloud explores themes of imagination and atmospheric beauty. The work features expansive skies and playful elements, aiming to capture a sense of wonder and freedom. The luminous clouds and vibrant blue, punctuated by a whimsical form and a soaring paper plane associated with the arrival of Spring. The work encourages the viewer to put their phone away, go outside and look upwards with hope.

Nasha Cash

Instagram: @nashacashart

Bicycle Day, 2024, Digital Illustration, 29.7cm x 21cm, £28

Framed Nasha Cash is a Manchester based artist and illustrator who works in a variety of mediums including pen, acrylic paint and digital. Often featuring anthropomorphic animal actors in unreal settings, Nasha’s work teeters the line between whimsy and dark. Having just finished their past series ‘The Altered, The Animal and The Unconscious’, which is on display at seesaw space till the 19th of June, they’re super excited for what’s to come. Nasha’s next project explores their experiences travelling to Jamaica, the land of their grandparents, for the first time, as well as a few other inspiring moments that sprung from their solo travels.

NXSTYGALNOODZ (she/her)

Instagram: @NXSTYGALNOODZ

Midsommar , 2015, Upcycled Oil Painting with Acrylic on Canvas, 35cm x 35cm, £150

The piece “Midsommer” presents a bouquet of flowers rendered in vivid almost surreal tones, its petals unfolding like delicate wounds from the core of the Blossom’s rich stems of pigment red bleed down the canvas merging into abstract pools. The bleeding effect evokes both physical and emotional release blurring the boundary between beauty and suffering. This still life is to portray both alive and unraveling suggesting transformation sacrifice beneath the surface of seasonal bloom.

Logan (she/her)

Instagram: @logan.lensphotography

Revival, 2025, Collage, card, acrylic paint, dried flower, 33.7 cm x 46.0 cm, £15 per print

Amanda Logan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Manchester, working across photography, digital art, and graphic design. With a deep love for all things creative, their work reflects a unique fusion of visual disciplines. Influenced by a particularly dry and difficult season in life, Amanda's art explores the profound idea that through death, there is life—and that there is always space for growth and renewal.

Olivia Barber (she/her)

Instagram: @livbarberdesign

The City, 2023, Digital Collage, A5, £50 Good Times, 2021, Digital Collage , A5, £50

Born and bred in Manchester, Olivia has always lived in a city with buildings and skyscrapers having always been the backdrop for most of her Springs. Themes of Spring that resonate with Olivia include rebirth, growth & joy, which hold strong parallels to the themes in her own practice. Both The City and Good Times are perceived by the artist as a reflection of her own life whilst learning to find softness and renewal amid the structured, fast-paced world around her.

Pat (she/her)

Instagram: @patz_artz

Warsaw, 2023, Gouache on Paper, 32cm x 23.2cm £50, £65 framed

Pat is an artist based in Chorlton, where the abundance of parks and lovingly tended gardens provides endless inspiration for her work. Although she studied sciences for several years, she never let go of the desire to create art and capture the beauty of the surrounding world. She mainly creates gouache and acrylic paintings, although often ventures into new techniques and constantly tries new means of expression. Her art focuses primarily on nature and flowers found on her daily walks. She seeks to capture the essence and energy of spring—its sense of renewal, warmth, and subtle magic. Her paintings are a celebration of the quiet moments of joy found in blossoming gardens, scattered petals, and sunlit paths.

Talluff

Instagram: @talluff

Golden Egg, 2025, Digital, Procreate, 32cm x 23cm, £35

Tommy is an aspiring indie game developer and fantasy illustrator from Stockport. He enjoys all things goblins, elves, wizards, and is currently working on a game about a slime exploring its world in the pixel art style. His drawings usually involve silly creatures and characters interacting, often drawn digitally but sometimes with pencils and crayons. When thinking of Spring, Easter was one of the first things to come to mind which also doubled as the legend of the goose that laid golden eggs. This felt like an exciting premise for a goblin and coincides with the start of the growing season of beanstalks.

Follow HappeningInMCR on instagram at @happeninginmcr, for regular updates about the arty goings on in Greater Manchester.

The HappeningInMCR Team are:

Jasmine, Co-Director, Admin and Coordinator, @sminspiring_art

Nahsa, Co-Director, Co-Curator, @nashacashart

Tom, Co-Curator and Gallery Technician, @tomkinlochart

Zhen, Graphic Designer, @shirotenzhen