There was a real buzz last night as people crowded into Undercurrents Gallery in Deptford to enjoy words blown up big, tiny, ripped apart, hung on walls, painted, incendiarised . . .
The free exhibition showcases poetry and artifacts from nine Romanian and British poets who make up Poetryartexchange – a project which draws on art for poetic inspiration and plays with poetry as a visual art. The participating poets are: Claire Booker, Anna Maria Mickiewicz, John Riley, Steve Rushton, Andra Rotaru, Margento, Iulia Militaru, Aleksandar Stoicovici and Stephen Watts.
Each poet submitted two poems on the subject of art and/or poetry and then wrote two more in response to each other’s work. These, along with statements and discussions between poets, plus the original poems, will be developed into an online book, to be published by Contemporary Literature Press (the online publishing house of the University of Bucharest) in spring 2017. For more information, please visit: http://editura.mttlc.ro/ 
You can catch the FREE exhibition at Undercurrents Gallery, The Bird’s Nest, 32 Deptford Church Street, SE8 4RZ. It runs until Wednesday 25th May and is open to the public every day of the week from 12 noon to 11pm.
Feel a bit artistic yourself? You’re invited to leave your own mark on poetryartexchange‘s living blackboard where spontaneous poetry and/or art will arise (and may appear later in an e-book).
Further exhibitions are planned for Birmingham, Bucharest and the Romanian Embassy in London. Undercurrents Gallery provides generous space to artists and free entry to see their work. If you’re interested in setting up an exhibition, check them out at The Birds Nest, Deptford or find out more at: undercurrentsgallery.tumblr.com
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