We’re Going To Need A Bigger Brush!

23 January – 22 March 2026, Modern Art Oxford

A powerful celebration of identity, creativity and community, this group exhibition showcases artwork and film by learning-disabled and neurodivergent artists.

This latest exhibition of work by the Shadowlight Artists, presented in collaboration with Modern Art Oxford is the first public exhibition of work resulting from the new Supported Studios project. The exhibition title humorously plays on the famous quote from the film Jaws, “you’re going to need a bigger boat!”, reflecting the size of this creative task.

The Shadowlight Artists are a collective of talented and ambitious learning disabled and autistic artists based at Film Oxford, East Oxford. This exhibition celebrates the inaugural year of the Shadowlight Supported Studio, coinciding with Film Oxford’s 40th Anniversary. Since 2009, the Shadowlight Artists have produced powerful work spanning painting, sculptural installation, film and theatrical production, reaching audiences within the UK and internationally.

Since April 2025, the group has come together weekly to decide the direction of the collective, define their goals, and work together to co-create artworks in a supportive and lively studio environment. They also regularly collaborate with other professional artists, including Chris Oakley, Poppy Johnson-Doherty, and Su Frizzell, enabling the group to explore new art forms and experiment with diverse mediums.

Through film, photography, printmaking, costume and prop making, the group envision and embrace alternate identities as well as sharing their own experiences. On display are three collaborative films made by the Shadowlight Artists. These films use the artists’ drawings and collages as the foundation and backdrop for their performances to camera. Their latest film, Shadowlight Artists at the Movies, was inspired by old film posters, with the artists creating costumes from recycled and reused items.

Movie Madness, is a new film created by young people from Yellow Submarine, a charity supporting people with learning disabilities and autism in Oxfordshire. During workshops led by Film Oxford, the young people collaborated to storyboard, design props, make costumes, and film their work together. Similarly, Film Oxford worked with Chilworth House School to create animations of the young people’s drawings of imagined characters using an AI assisted process. In these films, the young people were invited to explore film genres, stepping into roles in their own imagined movies.

To plan your visit, go to https://modernartoxford.org.uk/whats-on/shadowlight-artists