A contemporary art gallery in Eastbourne you say? Oh yes. The Towner is an example of bold intervention in a culturally-neglected area and it’s wonderful how the moulded concrete and eye-watering colours draw you to this piece of architecture, and regardless of what you think about contemporary culture, it just puts a smile on your face. What is art for if not for that?
In our case, it was a situation of arriving with only 30 minutes before the gallery closed so we had to whizz around the one floor that was open, playing a game of ‘find your favourite piece and explain why’. The permanent collection was average if I’m honest, the highlights were a set of Eric Ravilious wood engravings which were were miniature works of genius and a series of C-type prints by Ugo Rondinone which drew me because of their beautiful timeless, wistful nature. Rondinone created this series of images after the loss of his partner and I found them deeply representative of loss and searching for answers at the same time. Very moving work and worth the short trip we managed to squeeze in.
