LOOK Climate Lab 2026 Launches at Open Eye Gallery Exploring Climate Change Through Photography
LOOK Climate Lab returns in 2026 with a major biennial programme exploring how photography can be used as a powerful and relevant medium for engaging with the climate crisis.
Taking place from 23 January to 29 March 2026, LOOK Climate Lab 2026 will see Open Eye Gallery transformed into an experimental “lab” space, bringing together artists, researchers and activists to test ideas, share knowledge and spark discussion around the systemic changes needed to address climate change.
This year’s edition focuses on gardens and green spaces, examining how people connect with the natural world and the role plants play in shaping memory, community and wellbeing. Through photography and socially engaged practice, the programme invites audiences to reflect on their own relationships with nature, from cultivated public gardens to overlooked urban greenery.
Max Gorbatskyi, Curator at Open Eye Gallery, said the programme looks at plants in all their complexity and personal meaning: “From memorials to places to hang out with friends, from horticultural perfection to an accidental hedge near your house or a tree that brings back memories, we examine the role plants play in our lives, and how our lives shape theirs.”
LOOK Climate Lab 2026 features a wide-ranging programme of projects. My Nature Connection sees photographer Stephanie Wynne working with volunteers from Whitby Park Community Garden to explore the positive impact of connecting with nature. The project has been developed in partnership with Chester Zoo as part of its Networks for Nature programme.
Paul Harfleet’s ongoing Pansy Project also forms part of the exhibition. Since 2015, Harfleet has planted pansies at sites of homophobic and transphobic abuse, using a quiet yet powerful act to confront hate crime and bring visibility to LGBTQ+ experiences that often go unreported.
Emergence is a socially engaged collaboration between volunteers at Victoria Park Butterfly House and visual artist Anna Wijnhoven. Through photography and collective making, the project celebrates the often unseen labour of those who sustain this unique urban sanctuary and is part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Cultural Events Programme.
Another major strand of the programme is OFFSHOOT, a collaboration between the University of Salford Art Collection, RHS Garden Bridgewater and Open Eye Gallery. Photographers Fiona Robinson, Anoosh Ariamehr and Liz Lock have worked with community groups across Salford, including youth and wellbeing groups, while based at RHS Garden Bridgewater.
Alongside this, artist Yan Wang Preston has undertaken a memory-gathering process in response to the oldest tree at RHS Bridgewater, a 300-year-old sweet chestnut. The work considers trees as potential keepers of memory, asking what this historic tree might recall from three centuries of change.
The programme also includes TreeStory Wigan: The Story of Wigan Through its Trees, launched in 2025 by Open Eye Gallery and dot-art in partnership with Wigan Council to mark the borough’s 50th anniversary. The project explores Wigan’s reclaimed post-industrial green spaces through photography, workshops and outdoor activities led by photographers Lizzie King and Andy Yates, connecting communities with both natural and industrial heritage.
Veterans’ Oaks, a nationwide initiative commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, uses the symbolic planting of oak trees to honour those who lived through the war while also committing to a greener future in the face of climate change.
Meanwhile, Seeds of Change reimagines urban green space at the University of Salford. Students and graduates Nia Hoffman, Fariba Najafi Barzegar and Frances Veltkamp have collaborated with university staff, Open Eye Gallery and landscape architects Planit to create multi-sensory, sustainable artworks and planting interventions, transforming the site into an ecologically rich and welcoming campus entrance.
The exhibition is rounded out by Roam, River, Roam, a practice-as-research project by artist and producer Liz Wewiora. As part of her PhD with the University of Salford and Open Eye Gallery, Wewiora has worked with communities living where rivers meet, exploring personal relationships with local waterways and surrounding green spaces.
An accompanying events programme of workshops, talks and open meetings will run throughout the exhibition, with further details to be announced.
LOOK Climate Lab 2026
23 January to 29 March 2026
Open Eye Gallery
Free Admission
More info
