Exhibitions

Current Exhibitions and Events

STEPHEN PINNELL – THE CUNNING OF 10,000 LITTLE KITTENS THE CROSSLEY GALLERY

4TH JULY – 27TH SEPTEMBER 2026

Looking back at the last decade and a half’s work by Stephen Pinnell, we see an artist seeking to construct a visual language from found objects, clipped quotations and images taken from a multitude of sources. His influences range from Robert Rauschenberg to T. S. Eliot and David Shrigley.

Variously described as paintings, collages or assemblages, the work is underpinned by Pinnell’s sense that the shared visual frameworks that once anchored meaning have become increasingly untenable in contemporary Western culture. We are left to construct a language of fragments. This is not without its advantages.

The philosopher A.N. Whitehead notes (writing in this case about ‘The Wasteland’ by T.S.Eliot, ‘Process and Reality, 1929’)

‘the poem is more than it’s fragments and the fragments are more than the whole. The many become one and retain their multiplicity…..At every moment in our lives we are gathering the many many fragments into a whole through juxtaposition, not ‘explanation’.

Perhaps more to the point, if you’ve never seen a jammie dodger used to articulate the problem of human existence, then you might want to come and have a look at this exhibition!

CLAIRE MURRAY – A LIGHT TO MY PATH
THE UPSTAIRS & MOSAIC GALLERIES
27TH JUNE – 16TH AUGUST 2026

‘I have been painting the landscape for many years now, and my last exhibition in 2025/26 was titled ‘Grounded’, a reference to the natural and elemental appearance of the earth and our environments.  In this exhibition, ‘A Light to my Path’, I explore the earthly and spiritual aspects more deeply, searching ideas of lightness and darkness using landscape as a metaphor.
Binaries such as hope and despair, belief and non-belief, sickness and health, or even perhaps good and evil are addressed. The depiction of traditional British landscape in paintings has evolved according to artistic movements, shifting aesthetics, tastes, as well as cultural and political changes. My paintings can’t help but pivot somewhere on the knife-edge between beauty and oblivion, utopia and apocalypse.’

Claire Murray is an expressive painter based in Fletcher’s Mill, Dean Clough in Halifax.  Claire has been painting for 37 years, teaching art, exhibiting and running her own studio practice, and has work in private collections internationally.

FRANK LAWSON – JOHN LENNON
THE SHORT LINK GALLERY
27TH MAY 2026 – 25TH AUGUST 2026

Originally from the North East of England but now living in Halifax, Frank Lawson was just 15 years old and still at school when he met and photographed John Lennon at his Surrey home during the summer holidays in August 1967.
Though being a Beatles fan well before they met, the six images document a fleeting encounter between Frank and John and are accompanied by a written account of Frank’s fascination with the band that spans over sixty years.
The images have never appeared in a public exhibition until now and show the relationship that one of the most iconic names in music had with his fans.
A chance meeting with photographer Peter Defty, who has a studio at Dean Clough Mills in Halifax, resulted in a collaboration to produce a limited edition of both archival quality Silver Gelatin and giclée prints, which will be launched in August at this year’s International Beatles Convention in Liverpool.
Frank has kindly donated a signed, framed print to the Dean Clough Photography collection, sited in the same space as the exhibition, it contains original prints from photographers including Martin Parr, Ian Beesley, Kate Mellor and Charlie Meecham amongst others.
A number of signed giclée prints are available to purchase from Dean Clough reception.

ANALOGUE 10 – THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
THE PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY
18TH APRIL 2026 – 2ND AUGUST 2026

The Analogue Special Interest Group of the Royal Photographic Society is one of the fastest growing parts of the RPS and the largest formal group dedicated to Analogue (film, darkroom and alternative processes) in the UK. This exhibition shows this dynamic group’s work and showcases the qualities of traditional photography techniques that many photographers are now either returning to from digital or discovering for the first time.

Analogue photography is thriving in 2026. More than 2 decades ago the digital camera became a ubiquitous artifact, and predictions were made that “Traditional” photography would simply disappear. In fact, during those 20 or so years analogue photography has evolved into a separate art form, where “Seeing the image” isn’t enough, the photographer also must “See the way” of producing that image.

In this exhibition we see the work of some of the best practitioners of analogue photography, not only traditional silver gelatin prints but also cyanotypes, wet plate images, intaglio, kallitypes and salt prints, lith prints and the more accessible hybrid (film to digital) images. We see the work of photographers who have recently discovered analogue techniques as well as those of us who remained faithful to our art.

For anyone wanting to see first-hand and understand the attraction of Analogue processes then this exhibition is a must for them, but also of great interest to other photographers and the general public.

To miss-quote Mark Twain: “Rumours of the death of analogue photography have been greatly exaggerated”.

JEFFREY ANDREWS – THE DRAWING IS NOT THE OBJECT
THE TINY GALLERY
27TH JUNE 2026 – 16TH AUGUST 2026

Jeffrey Andrews makes site specific installations that respond to architectural spaces, local history and the environment. These large-scale, monumental, public artworks are constructed in partnership with galleries, museums and communities.
He works principally in drawing, sculpture, photography and film and is interested in the relationship between three-dimensional objects and their two-dimensional representation. These artworks draw inspiration from everyday domestic objects and inherited items, raising questions about perception, design, cultural icons and the nature of our emotional attachments to them.
Since studying at London’s Slade School of Fine Art, he has had a long-standing fascination with how objects are translated into two-dimensions, “Most people would call this drawing; but for Jeffrey it might involve smothering Battersea Arts Centre or London’s Riverside Studios in recycled hospital sheets and rendering them as gigantic monochrome rubbings. You could define a picture as a three-dimensional object presented in two-dimensions – but this is literally what he achieves with his unwrapped works. That’s the joy of them.” – Vic Allen (Former Arts Director).
More recently, toasters, cheese graters, trumpets, violins, guitars and telephone boxes are wrapped in linen and rubbed with oil pastels or graphite to replicate the texture and shapes that are enfolded. The unwrapped artwork reveals an honest interpretation of the primary form in two-dimensions. This physical deconstruction presents the viewer with multiple perspectives within a single composition.
Based in the renowned art studios at Dean Clough Mills in Halifax, West Yorkshire. His work can be found in public and private collections across the UK and Europe.
Original artwork and limited edition prints are available for purchase.
Please get in touch if you would like to know more or arrange a studio visit.
www.jeffreyandrews.co.uk

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THE BRIGHTSIDE ARTS CLUB CAFÉ

THE FOCUS WALL 6TH JULY – 9TH AUGUST 2026

The Arts Charity at Dean Clough is proud to exhibit the work of a special group of amateur artists. Brightside Arts Club Café is a unique Arts Club and café for people diagnosed with dementia and their
carers.

Each first Thursday morning of the month, members undertake a range of art activities taught by ACDC artist, Fiona Edmondson. The sessions are accompanied by soft live music and refreshments.
Companionship, cakes and creativity await members in Fletcher’s Mill, Dean Clough, facilitated by The ArtsCharity at Dean Clough (ACDC) in conjunction with Age UK’s Dementia Hub.
Age UK Dementia Hub partners ACDC to invite membership of the Arts Club Café.
To become a Brightside member please contact:
Lisa Berrett
Community Engagement Officer
Calderdale Dementia Hub
Age UK Calderdale & Kirklees
Mobile 07513 727441
4-6 Square, Woolshops, Halifax, HX1 1RJ

Ian C. Taylor
The Mantlepieces
D Mill Reception and The Long Link Gallery
Current

Carved from an old limestone mantelpiece, these figures evoke Picasso’s observation that “to make a figure from a cubic volume is the most difficult thing in art.” Taylor’s characters often avert their gaze, absorbed in their own acts of looking – quietly reflecting our own presence as we observe them.

The Iron Man by Chris Mould

The Iron Man is currently on show in the entrance to The Dean Clough Galleries. Chris said “My interest in Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man began when I first found the book in the school library at a young age. It had been published in the year before I was born (1968) and continues to be a strong selling title in the children’s market today. 

After being asked to produce my own illustrated version of the story I became fascinated with the idea of taking the artwork to the next stage and building the character three dimensionally.”

Copies of The Iron Man, Illustrated by Chris Mould are available in the Design Shop at Dean Clough.

The Lego Model

Visit the Lego model of the 22 acre Dean Clough site situated in the Lego Brick Gallery in D Mill next to the Upstairs and Mosaic Galleries. This model, constructed out of approximately one million Lego bricks has been created by Lego artists Michael Le Count and Tony Priestman.  

Also displayed in the gallery are artefacts and photographs of the Crossley Carpet era and of the renovation of Dean Clough in the 1980s.

The Dean Clough Photography Collection
The Short Link Gallery
Permanent

The Dean Clough Photography Collection includes work by Martin Parr, Kate Mellor, Charlie Meecham and Ian Beesley, among others. It reflects the breadth of photographic practice exhibited at Dean Clough over several decades, with many contributors having long-standing or regional connections to the site.

The Dean Clough Earnshaw Collection
The Long Link Gallery
Permanent

Anthony Earnshaw’s irreverent wit and anarchic Surrealism have a permanent home at Dean Clough, where a significant body of his work—generously entrusted by his wife, Gail—is now displayed in the Long Link Gallery. Celebrating his self‑taught brilliance, fluid draughtsmanship and embrace of chance, the collection reflects Earnshaw’s distinctive contribution to post‑war British Surrealism and his long, creative association with Dean Clough.

The Dean Clough Art Collection
D Mill
Permanent

The Dean Clough Art Collection is on permanent public display in D Mill. It brings together works by artists such as Willy Tirr, Norman Ackroyd, Tom Wood, Joe Tilson, Derek Hyatt, Jake Attree, R. B. Kitaj and The Art Junkies, alongside many others. The works offer a rich and varied encounter with late‑20th‑century British art.

As one of the most substantial private art collections in the UK, the Dean Clough Collection provides public access to a wide range of artistic practices, with a particular focus on work produced in the 1980s and 1990s. Eclectic in scope and representative of a broad spectrum of mediums, the collection offers a vivid snapshot of artistic output.

The Piano Club

The Piano Club started over 30 years ago, a forerunner of the many piano meet-up groups found throughout the UK. Based at the Crossley Gallery in Dean Clough, The Piano Club offers a forum for pianists to play, perform and develop within a sympathetic and friendly environment and the opportunity to discuss aspects of piano playing and repertoire with fellow musicians. Our aspiration could be summed up as mutual self-improvement through the knowledge and experience to be found within the group.

The group meets on the first Sunday of each month from 10am to 1pm. Membership is free and meetings are open to observers.

The Crossley Art Gallery at Dean Clough has a beautiful Fazioli grand piano and seats 150. It is situated close to Halifax Bus Station, and the Dean Clough car parks are free on Sundays.

The Piano Club is run by David Nelson, formerly the Artistic Director of the Hebden Bridge Piano Festival. Please contact David by phone or email for further information. Tel. 07704 873 894

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pianoclubhalifax

Purchasing Artwork

Purchase exhibited items by debit or credit card from the Design Shop next to the Dean Clough Main Reception. When the exhibition finishes purchased items may be collected by arrangement.

Prints of some artists’ work are also for sale in The Design Shop.