Millie Thompson
Just As It Is
The Upstairs and Mosaic Galleries
5th July – 17th August 2025
Millie Thompson is a visual artist based in Halifax, and a 2023 graduate from the University of Leeds with a degree in Art and design. Her practice is grounded in acrylic and oil painting, where she employs a hyper-realistic style to depict everyday objects just as they are.
Millie’s work is primarily based on her own photographic source material, allowing her to retain a strong personal connection to each subject. She is drawn to the overlooked or mundane elements of daily life – household items, cluttered corners and ordinary compositions – transforming them into compelling and highly detailed scenes that feel both intimate and universal. Whether working to a set brief or developing independent projects, her compositions often reflect themes of familiarity, stillness, and memory.
Millie’s paintings invite viewers to pause and reconsider the quiet beauty of their surroundings, encouraging a deeper appreciation for the everyday.
Pete Defty
The Outlaw Project
The Focus Wall
5th July – 10th August 2025
Originally from the North East of England, Peter worked freelance before joining a commercial advertising studio in Newcastle and is now based in West Yorkshire, where he shoots portraits, architecture, interiors, and still life as well as many personal projects.
The Outlaw Project was inspired by the portraits of native American tribes made by Edward C. Curtis in the early 1900s. Shooting began for the project using a giant Sidney R. Littlejohn process camera made in London circa 1927 and acquired from a newspaper office.
The aim of the project mirrors the work of Curtis in some ways, recording faces from modern tribes and documenting stories to give future generations a good understanding of their own history.
Since 2015, the camera has been based in Peter’s studio at Dean Clough, during which time approximately 350 faces have been shot, with this being the second mini exhibition of the work. The final exhibition should take place toward the end of 2026.
For more information or to book a portrait sitting, please get in touch.
Claire Murray
Under (No) Illusion
The Focus Wall and Tiny Gallery
1st May – 9th June 2025
Exploring perception, instinct, memory and belief in a digital world
It is natural, when looking at an image of the landscape, to feel a sense of recognition, a fleeting memory of somewhere once visited. Our lived memories are real, and informed by ‘being’, but memory can be skewed by an external feed of fictional imagery, either from our imagination, the media or AI. In terms of ‘seeing’, our perception of reality can be manipulated, altered and confused with what is real and what is not. Our own perception fills in the gaps of what we think we are seeing, and what we perceive and see, are often quite different from reality.
Our personal visual perceptions are informed by our senses, smells, textures, sounds, smells and tastes, the temperature, light, all instinctive connections made in response to a place, and this is how we develop our ‘sense’ of place. Without these sensory ‘feelers’, recognition might be vague or superficial, and a connection to a place is lost. For me, the landscape gives us everything we need in order to turn our attention towards natural life sources, universal energies and systems, to the minutiae of what it is to ‘be’. This is perhaps a grand statement, but in my paintings, the landscape is everything, and I see strong metaphors that connect us not just with our surroundings and environments, our selves, and the health of the planet, but also with shifting political, economic, and financial systems across the globe.
My paintings have been described as expressive progressive, as opposed to abstract, as they are never without a reference point that relates to something recognisable. There is almost always a sense of up and down, left and right, attempting to make sense and harmonise with the natural world. If we lose our sense of the natural equilibrium, or upend our sense of ‘truth’ in what we see through the eyes of the media, AI and entertainment industry, we feel disoriented, unable to recognise or trust the familiar, akin to misinformation. Think of this in relation to a person suffering from dementia, who no longer remembers their home or their family, or someone who finds themselves uprooted and a long way from home. What happens to ones sense of belonging when the recognisable is no longer accessible? How does one feel a connection, or feel secure, safe?
Our instincts still play a vital role in our increasingly digitised lives, and the textures, colours, light, shade, line and form in my paintings attempt to inform the perception of place, memory, instinct, belonging, safety and feeling, and not airbrush or smooth away the very details of human existence. The grit, earth, sea and rock, ground us, serve to remind us that we are also part of the natural order, made of molecules, atoms, energy and matter. I am interested in what artists often refer to a ‘space’, finding depth and perspective, creating a journey into and through a painting. But equally, I can’t help but zoom into the details, the microscopic, noticing the delicacy and frailty of nature in contrast to its vastness and inherent power. This exhibition has been curated to show those contrasts of scale, power and fragility.
Claire Murray is an expressive painter based in Fletchers Mill, Dean Clough in Halifax. Claire has been painting for 35 years, teaching art and running her own studio practice, and has work in private collections internationally.
Peter Stanaway & Kevin Haynes
The Mosaic and Upstairs Galleries
19th April – 25th May 2025
Peter Stanaway and Kevin Haynes are northern artists whose subject matter is primarily concerned with the industrial landscapes and people of the textile mill towns in Lancashire. Both members of MAFA (Manchester Academy of Fine Art), they have exhibited widely both locally and internationally.
While having in common a graphic quality of painted depiction through delineated sections of colour, Peter’s work is reminiscent of the modified cubism of Fernand Léger. He uses the texture of the surfaces he works on to add depth and variation, sometimes exposing the process of building up the image. Kevin simplifies complex images into very carefully mixed sections that create a sense of depth. His faceless workers express their individuality through clothing much like one of his influences, L. S. Lowry.
George Hainsworth
A Retrospective
The Crossley Gallery
Saturday 22nd February – 25th May 2025
“Much of my work has links with that exemplified by Chardin, work that requires to be valued, understood and appreciated by an intimate and domestic audience. The paintings aspire to being ‘used by the eye’ as part of domestic life, and therefore make possible the enrichment that is implied by this experience.”
George Hainsworth describes his work as figurative in the most expansive sense. He can go from large paintings of vases of flowers composed of confident gestural impasto marks, to simple geometric assemblage. Born just before World War II, George was strongly affected by war-time events, particularly Hiroshima, which led to the production of many anti-war works throughout his career.
A student at Leeds College of Art 1955-60 and the Slade School of Art 1960-62, he went on to work in Higher Education for many years alongside his own practice, which also drew from his experiences in teaching.
“The influences upon my work are too numerous to mention. They derive from other painters and sculptors, but also from films and dance, archaeology, science, politics and philosophy. I feel that as an artist one is and should be embedded in the wider culture, interacting with it and hopefully enriching it.”
George draws on a wealth of sources, but what he produces is distinct stylistically, full of physicality and always completely sincere.
Read a review by Art Critic Nigel Ip here.
The Woven Warriors
The Focus Wall
Tuesday 8th April – Monday 28th April 2025
This show highlights the rich and diverse untold stories of the women driving the cultural life of Calderdale.
The Woven Warriors project was set up by local artist Lucy Arden and writer Miranda Roszkowski to shed light on the often overlooked stories of women dedicating their working lives to the people of the area and to inspire future female leaders.
It was inspired by Bradford born Doreen Pickles who worked for Crossley Carpets. She was a trade union leader, lecturer and champion of women’s causes throughout her life.
Doreen was born on the 30th August 1924 and died on the 8th December 2020.
She championed the rights of others throughout her life, and left a legacy of “advancing women’s involvement in progressive politics and campaigns” when she died in 2020.
Skye Shadowlight
80S/HD
The Mosaic and Upstairs Galleries
Saturday 11th January – 15th April 2025
Skye Shadowlight (b.1974) is a neurodivergent Texan-born artist who has lived and worked in Calderdale for over twenty years. As a modern-day storyteller with plenty of thought-provoking tales to tell, she creates large scale installations often featuring live performance.
Previous exhibitions include Liverpool Independents Biennial (2018) and SHAPE OPEN (London)(2017). Skye was the winner of Edna Lumb Travel Award at Leeds Beckett University and the Square Peg Bursary (2018).
In 80S/HD, Skye takes a vibrant trip back in time to the 1980s. She explores the challenges of being an undiagnosed girl with ADHD and all of the feelings and emotions surrounding her situation. The work is comprised of different toys, games and objects of the time, which have been subverted and reimagined to bring stories to life. There will be a live performance at the opening.
ACDC AGE UK ARTS GROUP
Group Exhibition
The Focus Wall
Thursday 13th March – 30th March 2025
Developed over a series of sessions held at ACDC’s Community Art School in Fletcher’s Mill, these works were produced by enthusiastic first-time artists under the supervision of Fiona Edmonson, an established arts practitioner.
The project was supported by the Sir George Martin Trust.
The Halifax Grid Project
In Search of Urban Happiness
The Crossley Gallery
Saturday 26th October – 9th February 2025
This ‘portrait’ of the Halifax area in 2023 was carried out by 63 contributors from the local community. They produced 2471 photographs and 41 pieces of writing.
Their work forms the most recent Grid Project, a project which uses systematic approaches to documentary photography and seeks to avoid cherry-picking solely picturesque outcomes.
What makes us happy in our environment?
This project uses photography and writing to look at the question from a less-than-conventional point of view. Typically, we might be happy if we inhabit a place with, say, low crime, good schools, friendly neighbourhoods, low-volume traffic, attractive views with lots of trees, clean and tidy streets and so on.
We looked at a different dimension of happiness, based on The Image of the City (1960) by Kevin Lynch. It’s concerned with the sense of wellbeing we get when we possess a strong image of our town or city.
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