R OPEN

Since we opened R Gallery in 2022, we have followed the same ‘recipe’: installation, grand opening, a six-week exhibition, and then on to the next. It isn’t a recipe of our own making, galleries across the world have followed the same model since the middle of the 20th century. There is nothing wrong with this model. Yet part of the privilege of running an exhibition space lies in reflecting on what we do, and how we do it. R OPEN emerged from these quiet reflections as an idea and experiment. We wanted to question how our exhibition space is used and how artists benefit from it.

On 26 November 2025, we handed over the keys of the gallery to six artists for six weeks. We invited them to use R Gallery – as a studio, a darkroom, a wood workshop, or a foundry. They were free to come and go at all hours, seven days a week.

The word residency naturally comes to mind when giving artists ‘residence’ in a space,

however, that term doesn’t quite capture what we hoped to explore. The title of the

experiment, R OPEN, does: an open invitation, an open door, an open dialogue, an open Whatever-you-want-to-open.

The six weeks became an exercise in experimentation; revealing limitations, sparking

discoveries, and offering moments of artistic revelation for both the artists and the gallery itself. Most of all, it’s been an exercise in opening up.

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26th October - 13th November 2025, R Gallery, 26 Tigne Street, Sliema.

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