5 reasons to enjoy "Summer" in Halifax

Loved last night’s opening of “Summer” at the Open Gallery, Halifax. Here’s 5 reasons why you might enjoy visiting this exhibition too.

1. Get that summer feeling

Enjoy the best of summer in a lovely, cool gallery space. Whether it’s the image that reminds you of that holiday feeling, your favourite sunshine blooms, a walk on the beach, summer socials, magic views, glorious sunsets or an emotive abstract – there’s bound to be something that captures that summer feeling for you.

2. Feast on the visual variety

Curator, Alina Savko has done a brilliant job of curating summer-themed creations in a range of media. There are paintings in acrylic, oil, watercolour, spray paint, gold leaf and mixed media. Photographs, giclée and digital prints and charcoal images. Plus three dimensional creations that include textiles and hand-embroidery, clay, birch ply and wire. 

3. Discover new contemporary artists

There’s close to 30 artists taking part in the exhibition. These kinds of curated group shows are ideal to enable you to discover new creatives. While many of the artists are Yorkshire-based liked myself, contemporary artists from across the UK take part so it’s a great taster event. If you’re not able to visit the exhibition in person, you can also buy a catalogue from the gallery website.

4. Support local artists

Most but not all creations on display are for sale. You’ll make someone’s day if you buy, but there are lots of ways to support local artists. A recommendation goes a long way in the art world. Promote the exhibition and your favourite artists and artworks through your own conversations, social media and networks. In a world engineered to market lots of mass-produced goods, artists face an on-going relentless challenge to get our individually-created pieces seen. Every little shout-out counts.

5. Delight in seeing the texture of my work in person

Texture’s my thing but photographs don’t do justice to this aspect of my work.  It really is worth seeing them in person. In both of my paintings included in this exhibition, the gestural texture enhances the sense of movement in the diagonal compositions.

Soul is a special seascape. To me it marked a turning point in my art journey. I always wanted to get that balance between the material tactility of the paint and its emotive and representational potential. This was one of the first paintings where I immediately felt that I achieved this. It inspired me to embrace this part of my creative process and now this has become an intrinsic and distinctive part of my work.

Created during lockdown, Nonchanlance is also deliciously textured. The flowers bob in the sunlight. The cat is named Tai after toddler me’s favourite black and white toy cat named Tai. The cat is an adaptation of a cat I used to pass on my walk to work combined with memories of the real and textile cats from my childhood.

The Open Gallery is open Tuesday–Saturday from 11am to 4pm.