There’s so much going on with the Artists Open Houses, but here are a few that we particularly liked the look of. Now, go and explore.

HOUSE 2011
Various venues throughout May
A joyfully dense crush of playful local and visiting guest artists splashed throughout a series of city spaces in an imaginative avant-garde accompaniment to Open Houses. There are really too many to name, but from performances at Phoenix and bicycle theatre in Portslade to Cinecity audio installations at the Nightingale and expert-selected works at the majestic Regency Town House, the programme welcomes an impressively wide alliance of artists known for surprises. Check out aoh.org.uk for all the details. (BM)

NIGHTINGALES
The Nightingale throughout May
After one of the Nightingale theatre team had her photo taken for your SOURCE editor James Kendall’s ‘People I’ve Met’ series, she showed it to her bosses and they installed said editor as official portrait photographer for the leftfield space. The resulting portraits of the people who work and perform there are simultaneously both stark and quirky, with a range of faces captured off stage, some letting the mask slip more readily than others. (NC)

NED HOSKINS
109 Stanford Avenue, Sat and Sun 7th-29th
Open Houses are such subjective experiences that suggesting which makeshift art dens you might enjoy on your voyeuristic adventures is a bit like trying to predict which spot on the beach you’ll pick this summer. Ned Hoskins was savvy enough to dream up showing work in artists’ homes during the festival 30 years ago, so why not start by perusing the work of the painter responsible for hundreds of them ushering you in for tea, cake, art and random conversations? (BM)

FUTURES PAST
Octopus Gallery Sat and Sun 7th-29th
Having said the above, if you’re fearing twee jumpers and awkward chats with people whose canvasses make you wish you’d brought petrol and matches to the party, then Octopus Gallery is certain to be über-cool. We’ve seen these illustrators, pop printmakers and vintage poster creators in the all-conquering Brighton Rocks Artists Group, and their run of bands, brands and record label commissions include Nokia, Vogue, i-D and the Guardian. (BM)

WORDS BY NICK COQUET, BEN MILLER