Modern Toss
Modern Toss, the satirical cartoon, comic, and animation international art brand, whose work appears regularly in The Guardian, Private Eye and New Scientist, celebrated their 20th anniversary by kicking off a UK-wide tour at Brighton Corn Exchange in October 2024.
Creators Jon Link and Mick Bunnage asked Footfall Space to advise on other potential UK locations and scout out possible venues.
After two decades of outstanding creative output, the Modern Toss exhibition required space for traditional framed and wall-mounted artwork, film screenings, several interactive modular installations, oversized canvas wall-hangings, and large, ceiling-suspended sculptures in the form of giant (but friendly) flies.
One of the defining aspects of Modern Toss’s work is their humorous and liberal use of ‘industrial’ language. Over 117K Insta followers like it, but naturally, it may not suit every arena. And so along with identifying a venue large enough to accommodate this unique collection of work, Footfall Space also needed to find venues venue that would be welcome the Modern Toss brand of content.
Northern Lights, Liverpool
After an intensive two-week search across Liverpool, Footfall Space landed upon Northern Lights, a former food canning factory in Liverpool in the city’s alternative quarter for independent and creative industries: the Baltic Triangle. The building had never been used to display art before, and has most recently been in use as a church.
With availability established and permission secured, we negotiated a temporary lease and hire costs for Modern Toss within their budget.
The Liverpool leg of the tour opened with a three-week exhibition at Northern Lights on 25th July 2025.
The Moor, Sheffield
Two months after their well-received show in Liverpool closed, and to the delight of their followers across the Pennines, Modern Toss hopped over to Sheffield in October 2025, for the next leg of their tour.
The brief was similar in terms of space size and availability, and with one further criteria: “city centre with good footfall”. Within a fortnight we found somewhere that had last been occupied by a charity, as a free-to-access public space for learning. Located on the main pedestrianised shopping street in Sheffield, ‘The Moor’, it met the criteria perfectly.
In total, over 1,000 people visited the Liverpool and Sheffield exhibitions.
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