Goodnestone Contemporary

The Goodnestone Contemporary

Housed in the estate’s 19th-century stables, the gallery space at Goodnestone Park hosts an evolving series of exhibitions showcasing contemporary work in painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media. Each show is curated to reflect – or at times challenge – the atmosphere of its surroundings. Artists are invited to respond not only to the physical space but also to the layered histories of Goodnestone itself.

A Living Dialogue

Art at Goodnestone is curated by Tom Plumptre, who first envisioned this programme six years ago alongside his friend Fearghus Raftery — an architect, artist, and curator. Together, they imagined the transformation of the estate’s derelict stables into a contemporary gallery — a vision that became the foundation for what is now Goodnestone Contemporary. Deep thanks are owed to Fearghus for sparking the project and helping bring it into being.

The art at Goodnestone is not simply placed into a historic setting — it becomes part of a conversation. Between old and new. Between place and perspective. Between permanence and impermanence. As curators, artists, and collaborators, we’re interested in how contemporary voices can illuminate traditional spaces — and how these spaces in turn can lend new depth to the art.

This programme will continue to grow in thoughtful, responsive ways. We hope you’ll return often, as the exhibitions evolve and the seasons shift.

This summer, Goodnestone Park hosts Bletting the Mother Beast—a powerful and intimate solo exhibition by Margate-based artist Mercedes Lucy.

Inspired by the natural process of bletting—when fruit softens and sweetens as it begins to decay—the exhibition reflects on the ways grief, motherhood, and memory shape and soften us over time.

Working with ceramics, textiles, and sound, Lucy creates tactile, emotionally charged works that explore the tension between fragility and resilience. Her hand-built clay forms—cracked, held, mended—carry the weight of personal and shared histories.

“Each piece is a story,” she says, “formed in moments of stillness and upheaval.”

Set within the gardens of Goodnestone Park, the exhibition finds a fitting home. The landscape echoes the contradictions in Lucy’s work—structure and wildness, sorrow and renewal.

Mercedes Lucy is a studio holder at Tracey Emin’s TKE Studios in Margate, with past exhibitions at Saatchi Gallery, Matt’s Gallery, and Flowers Gallery. Bletting the Mother Beast marks her first solo show since 2023, and her most immersive to date.

We invite you to experience it before the exhibition closes on 31st July.