Exhibitions

Current Exhibitions and Events

BERYL ROBINSON – THE SINISTER TRAVELLER

THE UPSTAIRS & MOSAIC GALLERIES 22ND AUGUST – 4TH OCTOBER 2026

Beryl began painting at the age of 76, producing more than a hundred works in an intuitive outpouring that transformed her home into a makeshift studio. ‘The Sinister Traveller’ brings together the paintings she made during the early months of the Covid‑19 pandemic, when uncertainty and fear shaped daily life in ways that still affect many people. Though entirely self‑taught, her imagery has prompted comparisons to Blake, Chagall, Picasso, Gauguin and Stanley Spencer — not as imitation, but as evidence of a visual language formed instinctively and with a sense of compulsion.

Seen now, these works carry both the immediacy of their moment and the weight of everything that followed. Across the series, Beryl returns to a small set of recurring motifs — figures, creatures and forms that stand in for threat, vulnerability, contagion and survival — creating a symbolic vocabulary that gives coherence to her improvisatory approach.

“My paintings are strange, I know, but they show the foreboding I felt at the start of the pandemic and the virus in its many threatening forms.”

Visitors to her home‑studio describe the sheer volume and urgency of the work — a late‑life eruption of images that defies expectation.

---

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!

---

PETER DEFTY & FIONA EDMONDSON – WHAT GOES & WHAT REMAINS THE TINY GALLERY 20TH AUGUST – 3RD OCTOBER 2026

What Goes – Fiona Edmondson

The work in this exhibition includes paint, print and ceramics with a range of semi abstract printmaking elements, using both gelli and collograph printing techniques. These printed pieces are then developed in combination with observed representational forms in paint as she has always had a fascination with still-life. Fiona enjoys the act of focussed observation but aims to achieve subtle compositions with the building of layers to create abstract backgrounds.
She also has a passion for ceramics, both sculptural modelling and slab construction, exploring 3D form and surface texture. When working directly from a life model Fiona finds the process both absorbing and challenging. This interest in printed and textural surfaces is also reflected in the slab ceramic pieces in this exhibition.

What Remains – Peter Defty

When the memories of growing up surrounded by hundreds of items start to fade and there is no more room to store them, for Peter, the remedy is obvious, photograph what you have and hope that the images somehow maintain the memories and make letting go of the objects less of an emotional hurdle.”

---

ANITA CORMAC – THE AMMA JI TRAILBLAZERS

THE FOCUS WALL SEPTEMBER 1ST – SEPTEMBER 27TH 2026

Halifax has long been shaped by the journeys of people who arrived from elsewhere and made the town their own. Among the most influential were the women who came from Pakistan from the 1950s onwards — often travelling alone, often very young, and often stepping into a place that felt cold, busy, unfamiliar, and industrial in ways both similar to and utterly different from the homes they left behind.

This exhibition celebrates a remarkable group of women affectionately known as the Aunties, who have gathered for many years at the Women’s Activity Centre on Hope Street. Their stories — shared openly, generously, and with characteristic humour and resilience — offer a vivid portrait of early migrant life in Halifax. They speak of dislocation and determination, of raising families far from their birthplaces, and of building community through food, friendship, and creativity.

Alongside their recollections, the Aunties have contributed recipes and artwork that reveal the textures of their daily lives: dishes carried across continents, adapted to new ingredients, and passed down through generations; drawings and paintings that reflect memory, identity, and the act of making a home.

This exhibition accompanies the launch of a book and honours these women as trailblazers — the Amma who forged new paths, shaped cultural life in Halifax, and enriched the town with traditions that flourish today. Their voices form an essential chapter in the story of Halifax’s multicultural past and present.

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.

FEELINGS OF THE SECOND SORT – OLENA BARANOVA

MAIN ENTRANCE D MILL

Ukrainian artist Olena Baranova works with paper sculpture and installation, using fragile materials to explore quiet, often overlooked emotional states. Paper’s mix of delicacy and resilience mirrors the inner world she seeks to translate — every fold leaves a trace, just as every feeling does.

Feelings of the Second Sort takes its name from a layered Ukrainian term with no direct English equivalent. “Second sort” can describe someone who feels lesser or overlooked, as well as materials considered disposable — packaging cardboard, offcuts, paper destined for recycling. Baranova brings these meanings together, giving form to emotions that are usually unnamed or quietly carried.

Through minimal, contemplative works, the project invites viewers to slow down and notice what sits beneath the surface. Even the softest emotions deserve attention.

Olena has entrusted these sculptures to us at Dean Clough as she returns to Ukraine; they are too delicate to travel, and we are honoured to care for 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.