MORE THAN 160 ARTISTS CREATE ORIGINAL WORKS ON 5 X 5 INCH PLYWOOD PANELS FOR HOSPITAL ROOMS, THE ARTS AND MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY
Kathy Prendergast, Keith Piper, Antonio Ballester Moreno, Jacqueline Poncelet, Chris Orr RA, Oona Grimes RA, Katherine Jones RA and Peter McDonald are among the artists donating original works to raise funds for Hospital Rooms, which brings museum quality art and creative workshops into NHS inpatient mental health wards
Online Auction: Sunday 29 November to Thursday 10 December 2026
Private View: The Bomb Factory, Marylebone, Tuesday 8 December 2026, 6 to 8 pm
This winter, AOAP Projects invites more than 160 artists to create original works on 5 x 5 inch birchwood panels in aid of Hospital Rooms, the arts and mental health charity that works with artists and service users to transform NHS inpatient mental health hospitals. The collection will be auctioned online from 29 November to 10 December 2026, with a one night opening at The Bomb Factory, Marylebone, on 8 December.
Each artist has been invited to make an original piece on the same small plywood panel, bringing together internationally recognised names, Royal Academicians and emerging painters in a single collection. Funds raised will support Hospital Rooms' upcoming programme, bringing creative workshops and museum artworks into wards across the country.
Artists taking part include Kathy Prendergast, one of Ireland's most significant living artists. Prendergast represented Ireland at the 1995 Venice Biennale, where her City Drawings, a series of pencil drawings mapping the world's capital cities, won the Premio 2000 for the best young artist. The series is now held in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and her solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, Camden Arts Centre and the Southbank Centre. Earlier this year she presented Stasis Field, a solo exhibition of sculpture, works on paper and installation at Kerlin Gallery in Dublin.
Also contributing is Keith Piper, a founding member of the BLK Art Group and a central figure in the Black Art movement that emerged in Britain in the early 1980s. For more than four decades, Piper's work has examined race, power and the way histories are written. His exhibition Red Flags at Niru Ratnam this summer brought early works from the 1980s together with new pieces and was among the critics' picks for London Gallery Weekend 2026. He is currently curating Outside Narration at the Graves Gallery, Sheffield, on view until February 2027.
From Madrid, Antonio Ballester Moreno brings an international voice to the collection. Working across painting, ceramics, collage and installation, often in bright colour on raw jute, he reduces the sun, plants and clouds to simple, emblematic signs. In 2026 he has presented solo exhibitions at the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M) in Madrid, Tanya Leighton in Berlin and Galeria Pedro Cera in Lisbon. In 2019, he curated a section of the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, in which he also exhibited.
Belgian-born, London-based artist Jacqueline Poncelet has spent five decades moving between ceramics, painting, drawing, textiles and public commissions. A pioneering figure in contemporary ceramics, she received the Freelands Award, which led to her major retrospective In the Making at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, followed in 2025 by her first London solo presentation in more than 20 years at Richard Saltoun Gallery. Her Art on the Underground commission Wrapper transformed the Edgware Road substation in London.
Three Royal Academicians are contributing to the auction. Chris Orr MBE RA has published more than 400 limited-edition prints and is known for densely populated, humorous images that have led some to describe him as a latter-day Hogarth. He was Professor of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art from 1998 to 2008 and served as Treasurer of the Royal Academy from 2014 to 2018, and his work is held by Tate, the V&A and the British Museum. Oona Grimes RA, elected to the Royal Academy in 2023, draws, etches, paints and makes films, and was awarded the Bridget Riley Fellowship at the British School at Rome in 2018. Katherine Jones RA, one of the youngest artists elected to the Academy, makes layered, painterly prints that combine collagraph, block printing and hand colouring. Her work is held by the V&A, the Ashmolean Museum and Yale University Library, and her first museum exhibition, Fine Ladies and Gentle Men, responded to the work of Thomas Gainsborough.
Peter McDonald, winner of the 2008 John Moores Painting Prize, paints scenes drawn from daily life in bright, overlapping colour, with figures whose heads merge with one another and with their surroundings. Born in Tokyo and based between London and Tokyo, he is represented by Kate MacGarry, where he presented a solo exhibition earlier this year. His public commissions include Art for Everybody for Art on the Underground at Southwark Station.
Mexican-Irish artist Alicia Reyes McNamara, born in Chicago and based in London, draws on Mexican and Irish mythology to explore identity and displacement. Represented by Niru Ratnam, they studied at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, exhibited in Bloomberg New Contemporaries and were shortlisted for Women to Watch UK: New Worlds.
Further artists contributing include Beth McAlester, Haroun Haywood, Hazel O'Sullivan, Luke Stephenson, Madelina Zaharina, Michael Ajerman, Rob Lyon and Vivien McDermid, bringing together established and emerging voices across painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography.
Hospital Rooms works with artists and service users to transform cold, stark and inhumane NHS inpatient mental health hospitals into places that offer stimulation, beauty and hope. Over the past ten years the charity has worked with more than 360 artists, including Hurvin Anderson, Sonia Boyce, Heather Phillipson, Nengi Omuku and Studio Lenca, and thousands of mental health service users to transform dozens of inpatient mental health hospitals across the country, bringing museum quality art into some of society's most clinical spaces. It has also set up the Digital Art School, a free online art programme for anyone in a mental health unit, and each year delivers art materials boxes to every NHS inpatient mental health site in England.
The money raised from this auction will support Hospital Rooms' upcoming programme, which will bring creative workshops and museum artworks into wards across the country.
Tim A.Shaw at Hospital Rooms said:
The AOAP Projects concept resonates with us at Hospital Rooms. Like AOAP, in our projects, respected and established artists' work sits alongside exciting emerging artists' work, and I am very grateful that so many artists we admire have donated works to this fundraiser. The 5x5 inch scale and the price point of the artworks in this fundraiser make owning an artwork, while supporting the work we do, possible for many people who love art. The funds raised will make it possible for us at Hospital Rooms to work with more artists to transform more mental health hospitals and bring creative opportunities to patients across the country.
Gemma Peppe, Curator and Founder of AOAP Projects, adds:
"Hospital Rooms has shown what original art can do in places where people are often at their most vulnerable. It feels right that artists who have shown at the Royal Academy, the Venice Biennale and Tate are working alongside emerging artists on the same small panel and that the works all start at £65. Every piece is original, and every sale will help bring art and creative workshops onto wards across the country. We are very grateful to every artist who has given their time and work."
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
AOAP Projects x Hospital Rooms
The Bomb Factory, Marylebone
206 Marylebone Rd, London NW1 6JQ
Private View: Tuesday 8 December 2026, 6 to8 pm
Online Auction: Sunday 29 November to Thursday 10 December 2026
[Auction URL To Follow]
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About Hospital Rooms
Hospital Rooms is an arts and mental health charity that works with artists and service users to transform cold, stark and inhumane NHS inpatient mental health hospitals into places that offer stimulation, beauty and hope. Over the past ten years, Hospital Rooms has worked with more than 360 artists and thousands of mental health service users to transform dozens of inpatient mental health hospitals across the country, bringing museum quality art into some of society's most clinical, harsh and sterile spaces. The charity runs the Digital Art School, a free online art programme for anyone in a mental health unit, and each year delivers art materials boxes to every NHS inpatient mental health site in England.
Registered charity number: 1168101
hospital-rooms.com @ _hospitalrooms
About AOAP Projects
After more than ten years as one of the UK's most recognisable charitable art auctions, Art on a Postcard has evolved into AOAP Projects, introducing new formats and a broader programme of work. Since 2014 it has raised more than £2 million for charitable causes through its auctions and exhibitions. Fundraising remains at the heart of everything it does, with auctions featuring leading international artists alongside emerging talent and carefully chosen charitable partners.
In 2026 AOAP Projects launched Illuminated, its first summer exhibition in partnership with the Royal Society of Arts at RSA House, conceived as a departure from the auction model and intended to become a regular fixture in the London art calendar. Across the year, audiences can expect subscriber-only sales, print releases, curatorial collaborations and private views. While the formats evolve, the commitment to the quality of the art, the artists, the curation and the service remains unchanged.
Aoapprojects.com @aopprojects
About The Bomb Factory Art Foundation
The Bomb Factory Art Foundation is a non-profit, artist-led charity dedicated to creating space for art and culture to thrive. Born from an old munitions factory in Archway, the Foundation has transformed it into a hub of creativity with four dynamic galleries in Central London, affordable studios and a vibrant artistic community.
For The Bomb Factory, making space is simple: artists flourish when they have room to experiment, support to take risks and a community to share with. The Foundation provides genuinely affordable studios, residencies, mentorship, open critiques and opportunities to exhibit in London's central galleries. In return, its artists share their skills through workshops and learning programmes, ensuring art reaches those who need it most.
The Bomb Factory challenges the status quo by pairing emerging and established artists in its exhibitions, destabilising the hierarchy that dominates the London art scene. Its mission is to make art accessible, daring and unmissable.
bombfactory.org.uk @thebombfactoryartfoundation
PRESS INFORMATION
Nancy Dewe Mathews - Public Relations & Press Consultant
nancy@hospital-rooms.com
Gemma Peppé – Founder & Curator AOAP Projects
gemma@aoapropects.com
