Red Wire began life in June 2005 at the end of JMU's Fine art course. The 'Gang of The Four' (Mike Aitken, Hamish McLain, Pete Formela and Josh Tennant) went in search of a suitable studio, and immediately agreed on our present location- Carlisle Building. Another dozen or so artists, mostly from our course, also joined and we split the space into 10 sections. Before the 2006 Biennial, this was halved to include an full art gallery.

The gallery was built in response to our enthusiasm to have a really good Biennial, and we set our sights high, having four shows in only three months. We began by showing our own work in 'One', followed by an exhibition of 4 local artists- 'Skull', a red-themed exhibition- 'Red Sky at Night', and a very successful Open Exhibition featuring artists from across the U.K.

Since the Biennial we have had 'Stifled' which showed 4 final year graduates, and 'On Growth and Form' by 6 artists from London and A Proper Horrorshow by Roxy Topia and Oliver Braid, Welcome to Liverpool by Nicola Fitzsimmons and our 2007 Red Wire Open. We have also exhibited our own work in The International Gallery, in the well reviewed and exciting 'Aiming for Heights'.

Outside of the gallery space we produce a photocopied Zine which is now on its 8th issue. The Zine has got bigger and better, being almost twice the size. It's always a great feeling when you bump into someone who has read it, and if you have, you'll notice our beautiful red stitching, which is seemingly as popular as the work. We stick to the D.I.Y nature of the Zine, and are reluctant to make it any fancier.

2008 is a huge year for us, we have already exhibited in Paros and then Liverpool with From the Egg to the apple, recently showed Milk Two Sugar's in Your Art show and some of showed at The Wolstenholme with Roy Castle's Vision of Hell. We have 4 2008 Liverpool Biennial exhibitions planned, with Soup and The Henry Moore Institute, a Red Wire members show named Crapola Central, 'Fear Yourself' by world-renouned artist and musician Daniel Johnston and the Vanessa Bartlett curated show 'Slowness'. We were also involved with The Royal Standard collaboration in The Winner Takes it All?