Red Wire began life in June 2005 at the end of Liverpool JMU art course. 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 also joined and we split the space into 10 sections. Before the Liverpool 2006 Biennial, this was halved to include an art gallery.
The gallery was built with the aim to have a really good 2006 Biennial, and we set our sights high, having 4 shows in 3 months. We began by showing our own work in 'One', followed by an exhibition of 4 artists- 'Skull', a red-themed exhibition- 'Red Sky at Night', and an Open Exhibition featuring artists from across the U.K.
Outside of the gallery space we produce a photocopied Zine which is now on its 8th issue. The zine got bigger and better, being almost twice the size. It's been quite a while since our last issue, but there are rumblings it may return under a new guise at any moment.
2008 was a huge year for us, we exhibited in Paros with From the Egg to the apple, and some of showed at The Wolstenholme Gallery with Roy Castle's Vision of Hell. After the chaotic Your Art Show we had 4 2008 Biennial exhibitions including a Red Wire show- Crapola Central and 'Fear Yourself' by world-renouned artist and musician Daniel Johnston. We were also involved with The Royal Standard collaboration in The Winner Takes it All?
In 2009 some of us exhibited at Fear and Optimism in Sheffield, and in Red Wire we held 'Pencil it in', the excellent 'Apocalypse Now' and our second more famous artist-musician with the Half Japanese founder 'Jad Fair with Automatic Vaudeville' which became our final exhibition, as we have now converted the space into artists studios only- both to pay the rent (!) and to take on more artists.