'The Nature of Things' at 3/F Salts Mill, Saltaire, Yorkshire Sculptors Group 2026

 The group show 'The Nature of Things was hosted on the third floor of Salts Mill at Saltaire from 1 - 31 May 2026 and featured a selection of work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group.

De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) was a first century poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus (c.99-55 BC). The poem introduced Roman readers to Epicurean philosophy and presented principles of atomism, explanations of celestial and terrestrial phenomena  and described how physical principles are guided by chance, rather than divine intervention by the Roman deities. Lucretius also documented (in his opinion) the development of human made tools and weapons through the ages and began a train of thought that eventually became the study of evolution.

The third floor of Salts Mill had previously been unused and was therefore an unmissable and unforgettable opportunity to exhibit work in this splendid space, which was first lightly cleaned while being careful not to disrupt or disturb the amazing patina of the environment.

Plinths and stands were dispensed with, allowing the work a direct physical connection with the architecture so that the work and the building became one entity to be experienced together, almost as a total installation work.

I began work on a new piece that could be shown here for the first time, but as I was currently deeply immersed in my PhD studies, I had to move to plan B and show two small works that had not been exhibited since they were first shown to the public in 2020 at L'Usine in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as part of the 'Weaving Experience Into Memory' exhibition. 

It is always enjoyable to show work, but to show my work in such a unique space, it felt especially rewarding, a real privilege.

Exhibition Poster / Flyer

Installing the work

'D7, 3x3, Tile 1'

'D7, 3x3, Tile 7'

'Here, There and Now' at Barnsley Civic, Level Zero, Yorkshire Sculptors Group Show 2026

 The group show 'Here, There and Now' was hosted at Barnsley Civic, UK from 11 April to 23 May 2026 and once again featured work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group.

The exhibition was held on Level Zero, which was previously not used being used in the regular scheduling of the arts centre. The rough, undecorated nature of the space lent itself very sympathetically to its use for contemporary sculpture.

I exhibited the piece 'District 7, 11x8, White Relief', 2022 with the piece's monochrome, rectilinear arrangement juxtaposing well with the rough-hewn wall on which it was hung.

The warm, angled light helped the piece glow within the space and accentuated the shadows across the shallow relief of the composition. 

The well-attended private view was held on the evening of Friday 10 April.

Exhibition Poster

'District 7, 11x8, White Relief' in situ at Barnsley Civic

The piece showing the lighting effect

Members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group surveying the venue space

My chosen space, providing a rough-hewn surface to counter the work

Exhibition handout:

'Small Works, Wall Works' at Trapezium Arts, Bradford, Yorkshire Sculptors Group Show 2026

The group show 'Small Works, Wall Works' was hosted at Trapezium Arts in Bradford, UK from 21 February to 14 March 2026 and featured work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group.

Trapezium is a contemporary arts and photography gallery on Kirkgate in central Bradford, displaying a constantly changing schedule of exhibitions on a variety of themes.

I exhibited two pieces, both of which arose from the District 7 walking project conducted in Saigon Vietnam. The walking project resulted in a colour digital print that has led to several subsequent pieces and the two pieces exhibited in Bradford were enlarged details from the digital print.

Exhibition Flyer

The two exhibited pieces 

The two exhibited pieces

Ferens Open Exhibition 2023

The sculptural relief,  'District 7, 11x8, White Relief' has been on show at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull since 21 July, an open group exhibition that will continue until 1 October 2023. 

The 'Ferens Open Exhibition' is an annual exhibition held since 1967 and which this year presents the work of artists working in the fields of painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, video and performance.

'District 7, 11x8, White Relief' was previously exhibited in Wakefield Cathedral from 16 July until 29 August 2022 as part of a display of work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group.

 

The work evolved out of investigations relating to the 'Weaving Experience Into Memory' project, conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and which culminated in an exhibition at L'Usine, Crescent Mall, Phu My Hung, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

Having missed the opening private view (unfortunately arranged mid-week) it was a couple of weeks later when I finally got to Hull to see the show. As is often the case with these 'open call' large group exhibitions, an effort has been made to include as many works as possible and so the individual pieces are often placed in close proximity to each other, more so than would be the case in smaller shows. This throws up issues that affect the interpretation of the work, I find. 

When colours are experienced in juxtaposition with other colours, their qualities are altered and we 'read' them differently. Albers discussed this 'simultaneous contrast' effect to great lengths in his tremendous book 'Interaction of colour'. Something of a similar vein happens when works are shown together and the more works that are shown, and the closer these works are placed to each other, then the more pronounced the effects are noticed. The way we start to read each piece is affected by the other pieces around it.  

I would like to present some installation shots I took when visiting the exhibition, and allow you to consider how the piece appears here compared to how it appeared when on show in Wakefield Cathedral. It's fascinating. 

Details of the piece 'District 7, 11x8, White Relief, and the exhibition in Wakefield Cathedral can be read here.

'Borrow Pit' - Huddersfield Art Gallery: Unit 7, West Yorkshire, UK

‘Borrow Pit’ is a term used in construction or Civil Engineering, describing a specified location from which earthen material, such as soil, sand, clay, or gravel, is extracted to be used as fill at another location.

For many years I have been assembling a compilation of visual and conceptual elements and approaches that seem related to, or appropriate for utilisation in, work about the landscape 

Over time, this visual language has been slowly expanding and the variety of ways in which the various elements have been combined and juxtaposed has been increasing. 

I now see this visual lexicon of components as a borrow pit, from which I am able to source materials for current and future work.

An exhibition of work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group, using 'Borrow Pit' as a working concept, will open to the public at Huddersfield Art Gallery on 12 April 2023 and there will be a Private View on Saturday 15 April from 1:00-4:00pm within the temporary exhibition space, Unit 7 (opposite the main gallery building that is currently closed for repairs), Piazza Shopping Centre, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.

'Borrow Pit' Invitation

The piece I am exhibiting in Huddersfield is an expanding work that will continue to grow, increasing in size and complexity into the future. The ground has been broken, the foundations laid, and construction initiated. From this stage, it is the work itself that will oversee and determine the future progress and direction of the piece.

Installing the work at Huddersfield

'Breaking Ground', 2023

A video taken during the installation of the work can be viewed here.

'Assembly' - Wakefield Cathedral, West Yorkshire, UK

The term 'assembly' could be used to describe a group of people gathered together for a common purpose, or a set of components that could be combined into a larger, loosely or tightly integrated object or relationship. 

At Wakefield Cathedral, the term was used to describe the collection of work submitted from 16 members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group. Each piece of work sought to respond to, blend in with, or even react with (or against) the beautiful cathedral. 

'Assembly' - Wakefield Cathedral

Exhibition Poster

Following on closely from the exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, a piece was created specifically for the cathedral environment and, in particular, for the north-east corner of the building. The grid formed by the stone floor, the masonry blocks of the walls and especially the memorial plaques attached to the walls at regular intervals were the inspiration for the white relief panel that was created for this exhibition and presented on a simple, wooden easel.

The colours that are usually such a feature of the 'District 7' panels were in this case erased, leaving a monochrome surface of painted wood and mdf squares that emphasised the undulating surface of the work.

Once installed, the piece seemed to work well in the environment. What was not anticipated was the incredible luminosity of the work as the sun traversed the building through the day and eventually focused a glorious shaft of light onto the panel. It is always a pleasure to discover an accidental quality such as this, one that renders the work in a far more sympathetic way than was ever planned or hoped for. 

I would recommend a visit to Wakefield to see this exhibition before it closes on 29th August 2022. There are many other wonderful works to investigate, sited throughout the interior of the cathedral, some of which are discreetly hidden, awaiting discovery.

A pdf of the exhibition catalogue can be viewed here.

The Yorkshire Sculptors Group website can be found here.

'District 7, 11x8, White Relief', 2022

Installed in the North-east corner of the Cathedral

Closer view of the work

'District 7, 11x8, White Relief', 2022 - Detail

(Photo courtesy of Vincent James)

Wakefield Cathedral in all its glory

'Raw Edge' - Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds, UK

Sunny Bank Mills was founded in 1829 and specialised in worsted spinning and weaving until ceasing in 2008, when it began to be transformed into creative spaces and eventually hosted its first art exhibition in 2012.

'Raw Edge', the current exhibition, brings together work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group, responding to the concept of boundaries and raw edges. This concept has been approached and examined in a variety of media and by employing a variety of methods and processes by members of the group. 

The two 'District 7' pieces on show in this exhibition subtly raise the question of when a work is a painting and when it is a sculpture, where do we place the dividing line? Is there, or rather, should there be a dividing line between the two? Can a work simultaneously be a painting and a sculpture? 

Robert Rauschenberg constructed 'Combines', as he called them, which were much more overt in presence. They seemed to remove distinctions between one medium and the other, making it extremely difficult to categorise the work. 

The 'District 7' tiles are more modest in nature. From a distance, it could be assumed they were small, square paintings. Up close, the various levels of the tile components can be discerned. These are clearly solid and therefore the piece has been constructed using wood and/or MDF panels. In the past, paintings were often made of wood, the 'Mona Lisa', for example, was created with oil paint on a small panel of poplar wood. The two pieces here, however, have been deliberately built up to create a modular grid that varies in thickness, and have been painted in acrylic. They are certainly paintings and yet they have also been constructed as sculptures. 

We can therefore ask ourselves how we would categorise them and how important we feel that categorisation process is. It seems to change the perception of the work and also its meaning. As with any work, we begin by asking ourselves what is that we are looking at here and we then progress by asking further questions. From that point on, each viewer's 'meaning' of the work will be developed individually, according to the different answers proposed to each question in turn. 

It is definitely worth seeing this exhibition. Each work asks pertinent questions and makes for a very enjoyable day out in Farsley.

 

'Raw Edge', Sunny Bank Mills, Exhibition Poster

'Raw Edge', Sunny Bank Mills, Invitation

'District 7, 3x3, Tile 3', 2020

'District 7, 3x3, Tile 9', 2020

Installation shot of the 'Raw Edge' exhibition

(Photo courtesy of Sunny Bank Mills)

The two 'District 7' panels hanging on screens 

in the centre of the gallery space

(Photo courtesy of Sunny Bank Mills)