Beneath The Surface
Mill Artists Collective’s inaugural group exhibition including a collection of practicing artists based in the Macclesfield region
Mill Artist Collective Exhibition | Poster design Mimi Gunn
BENEATH THE SURFACE
Presented and curated by Mill Artists Collective in collaboration with Mark Devereux Projects
Buttermarket | Market Place | Macclesfield | SK10 1EA
4 October - 12 October 2025
Macclesfield will host an unmissable new cultural event: Beneath the Surface, the inaugural exhibition from Mill Artists Collective will be curated by Hannah wooll, Stephen Milner and Tyra Till. Emerging out of the acclaimed Macc’N Chat programme facilitated by Mark Devereux Projects, this launch brings together a powerful group of contemporary artists with strong ties to the region. The dynamic collective will offer an energy and spark to ignite conversation and wonder.
Housed in the historic Buttermarket, at the very heart of Macclesfield’s town centre, the show promises a rich, multi-layered experience for audiences. Expect to encounter painting, sculpture, moving image, immersive VR, participatory works, and large-scale installation.
The 11 artists boast a various, stimulating mix of practices that showcase a sample of the breadth and ambition of the region’s creative voices.
Alongside the exhibition, the programme will include community visits and workshops, encouraging people of all ages to explore, create, and connect. A Beneath The Surface MAC 2025 Symposium will invite lively and critical discussion on the artworks in the show, examining the threads that connect; the role of artists today, and the ways in which creativity can help shape our communities and our place in the region and the world.
Beneath the Surface is an invitation to engage with contemporary art in meaningful, thought-provoking, and inspiring ways in the heart of East Cheshire.
KEY DATES | Free events | Accessible Entry
Saturday 4 October - Sunday 12 October 2025 | OPEN DAILY 11.00 - 16.00
Saturday 4 October 17.00-20.00 | PREVIEW EVENT Free | Pre-Book via Eventbrite on Instagram: @mill_artists_collective Link in bio.
Sunday 5 October | Open 11.00-16.00
Monday 6 October | Open 11.00-16.00
Tuesday 7 October 13.30-14.30 Space 4 Autism | Group Visit with Jacki Clark | Closed Event | Limited public access during this hour
Wednesday 8 October | 14.00-16.00 | Beneath The Surface MAC Symposium Free | Pre-Book via Eventbrite on Instagram: @mill_artists_collective Link in bio.
Thursday 9 October | Open 11.00-16.00
Friday 10 October 11.00-13.30 Visible Mending Workshop | Drop-in Event With artist, Aimee Spilsted
Saturday 11 October | Children’s Clay Workshop with artist Rachel Ho Free | Pre-Book via Eventbrite on Instagram: @mill_artists_collective Link in bio.
Sunday 12 October | Final Day | Open 11.00-16.00
MARK DEVEREUX Mark Devereux Projects is an independent curatorial and artist development organisation, supporting early to mid-career artists through mentoring and creative collaboration. With expertise in nurturing ambitious practices, MDP provides tailored guidance and opportunities that help artists build sustainable careers and meaningful connections with audiences.
SUE ASBURY Sue Asbury embraces experimentation across varied media, resisting pressures to specialise. Her work explores the beauty of the weathered, worn and repaired, drawing attention to layered histories and the quiet resilience of aged, mended objects.
JACKI CLARKE At the intersection of art and immersive technology, Jacki Clark creates VR, AR, and mixed-media works exploring memory, perception, and well-being. Her practice uses storytelling and sensory engagement to foster reflection, empathy, and connection across both real and virtual spaces.
ERICA GROENEVELD Erica Groeneveld works with found objects to create sculptural assemblages rich with layered histories. Returning to spatial practice after years of painting, she combines and alters materials to weave new stories, conveying intangible thoughts and feelings through objects marked by previous lives.
SUSAN GUNN Susan Gunn is an award-winning artist recognised for her innovative use of traditional gesso techniques. Her fractured, layered surfaces explore impermanence, resilience, and the interplay of control and chance. Held in major collections including the Yale Centre for British Art, her works transform material rupture into objects of contemplative stillness and beauty.
RACHEL HO Ceramic artist Rachel Ho creates wheel-thrown and hand-built vessels inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of repair. Her work treats ceramics as visual poetry, exploring vulnerability, resilience, and human stories through forms that celebrate healing, imperfection, and restoration.
EMMA LLOYD Emma Lloyd transforms text into minimalist sculptural forms, exploring the complexities of meaning and interpretation. By distorting and reshaping language, her work questions assumptions of clarity, revealing how context, perception and experience continually reconstruct our understanding.
STEPHEN MILNER Stephen Milner’s work reflects on childhood illness, trauma, and vulnerability. Through emotionally charged visual narratives, he transforms difficult memories into art that is both cathartic and universal, using creative practice as a way to process, release, and share lived experience.
AIMEE SPILSTED Working with textiles, wood and ceramics, Aimee Spilsted creates contemplative pieces exploring fragility, grounding and repair. Her practice is bound by a recurring golden thread of restoration, weaving together materials and ideas to reflect resilience, connection and the beauty of healing.
MIKE THORPE Mike Thorpe explores visual restlessness in response to the flood of images and sensory cues we experience daily. His practice reflects on how memory and visceral reaction intertwine, creating artworks that capture the instability and fleeting nature of perception.
TYRA TILL Tyra creates socially engaged, collaborative installations that bridge divides and foster connection. By bringing together participants from diverse backgrounds, her projects challenge social separation and highlight the power of collective creativity, dialogue and inclusion.
HANNAH WOOLL Drawing from vintage manuals, figurines, and family photographs, Hannah Wooll collages found imagery into paintings and sculptures. Her work examines intricate notions of femininity, domesticity, and nostalgia, creating unsettling hybrids where figures shift between subject and object, portrait and still life.