A new destination for contemporary sculpture is set to open in the Hampshire countryside this autumn. Funny Weather, an annual outdoor exhibition platform founded and curated by London-based collector and artist Arina Izmestieva, will launch its inaugural exhibition, Strange Objects, from 12 September to 12 November 2026. Staged across gardens and woodland, the exhibition brings together site-responsive works and new commissions by emerging and established artists, transforming the natural landscape into an open-air gallery while introducing sculpture to new audiences beyond the traditional white-cube setting.
The exhibition brings together works and newcommissions by Jill Berelowitz, Ilona Malka Rich, Elise de Falletans, Henri Frachon, Thibault Lucas, Mathilde Albouy, Luke James and STASH.
Funny Weather was named after Olivia Laing’s writing on Art in Emergency and with a knowing nod to the improbable variability of the British climate, as well as to the permanent impermanence of work encountered outdoors. The platform’s aim is to introduce sculpture and installation to the landscape from which their materials originate, whilst connecting new artists with new audiences, opening the experience of collecting sculpture to those encountering it for the first time. It uses the gardens and forest of Hampshire to replace the white-walled gallery and showcase works in open air.
Strange Objects invites visitors to re-discover child-like wonder and move freely between works encountered gradually, some hidden among trees, revealed through light, discovered at the end of a path. At the core of the exhibition is materiality and the return to origin: bronze, resin, stone, ceramic, and organic matter placed back within the landscape. Some works sit quietly within it; others surprise, catching the eye where least expected. No two visits are the same as morning light, rain, wind, and dusk each reshape the landscape and the works within.
STASH’s bronze sculptures are tactile and figural, exploring intimacy and the instinct to connect. Jill Berelowitz works in bronze and resin, drawing from organic structures and the cycles of the human form to create work that is simultaneously large and yet deeply intimate. Elise de Falletans builds immersive narratives around objects, giving life to the inanimate, for Strange Objects, her new commission Excalibur Sword, standing approximately three metres tall. Ilona Malka Rich works in bold coloured resin, combining scale and vivid colour.
Henri Frachon presents a new on-site commission inviting viewers to “look throughmthe hole” framing a hidden detail in the landscape — a twisted branch, a faint trail stretching toward the horizon — through this theory of emptiness, the artist brings attention back to the heart of the space.
Luke James creates anthropomorphic sculptures that balance monumentality with humour, transforming plaster, ceramic and bronze into tactile, minimal forms that explore play, materiality and the subtle relationships between body, object andlandscape. Thibault Lucas assembles found materials directly within the Hampshire landscape, his totems, dolmens, and cairns drawing a quiet connection between the present and ancient cultures. Mathilde Albouy’s sculptures play on formal and conceptual paradoxes, creating objects that sit at the threshold of beauty and danger, seduction and threat.
For many younger collectors, the traditional white-wall gallery can feel intimidating and disconnected from how they want to experience art today. Sculpture, in particular, is often seen as difficult to access, both in terms of how it’s presented and the price points at which it’s typically offered. Funny Weather was founded on the belief that when you place works in the right environment, people engage with them differently. Sometimes all it takes is a more inviting setting to help someone discover a connection to sculpture for the first time. Or in this case, the right forest.” Arina Izmestieva, Founder, Funny Weather
Funny Weather was founded by Arina with a dual commitment, not only to champion artists, established and emerging, whose practices are rooted in materiality and the physical properties of objects, but also with the aim of introducing a new generation to collecting sculpture. Presenting works across a wide price range, the platform offers an accessible and considered entry point into the medium for those encountering it for the first time.
Strange Objects runs from from 12 September to 12 November 2026 and is open by appointment. Address of location in Hampshire made available upon booking. Find more information here.
