Current Exhibitions and Events
| Gallery | Artist | Dates |
| D Mill Reception and Long Link Galleries | Ian C. Taylor – The Mantlepieces | Current |
| Tiny Gallery | Ric Coulson | 1st Nov – 30th Nov |
| Crossley Gallery | Unbekannt – Ian Cale | 18th Oct – 8th Feb |
| Focus Wall | Introduction to Kehillah by Nudrat Afza | 16th Aug – 18th Jan |
| Photography Gallery | Kehillah by Nudrat Afza | 16th Aug – 18th Jan |
| Walkway Gallery, IOU | Two Rivers: collaborative project | Current |
| Walkway Gallery, IOU | Stewart Knights | Opens 13th March |
| Installation D Mill | Lost Workers | Permanent |
| Lego Brick Gallery | Lego Model | Permanent |
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.
Ric Coulson
Lest We Forget
The Tiny Gallery
1st November – 30th November
Witness ‘The Conflict Collection’ by RW Coulson, a former Royal Marines Commando and resident artist at Dean Clough.
Inspired by sacrifice, his art is built with military precision, one grain at a time and is infused with sand and soils from battlefields across the globe.The earth based medium and slow process create a profound, textural reflection on service, endurance and sacrifice.
Ian Cale
OST: Architecture Conflict Occupation
‘Unbekannt’
The Crossley Gallery
18th October 2025 – 8th February 2026
OST: Architecture Conflict Occupation is an ongoing project exploring abandoned civilian and military sites in the former German Democratic Republic. Through photography, painting, drawing, and the collection of found objects, Ian Cale investigates how the built environment reflects conflicting social values, political ideologies, and the traces of conflict and occupation. His work does not seek to provide fixed answers, but instead invites viewers to actively engage with the complex histories of 20th-century Germany and Europe.
About the Artist
Ian Cale was born in North Yorkshire in 1970. He studied painting at The Norwich School of Art and now lives in Manchester, where he lectures in Fine Art at The Manchester College.
Nudrat Afza
Kehilla
The Focus Wall and The Photography Gallery
16th August – 18th January 2026
Dean Clough presents Kehillah, a deeply evocative photographic series by Nudrat Afza, documenting Bradford’s diminishing Jewish community with quiet intensity. The grainy textures and beautifully balanced tones lend the images an almost timeless quality, mirroring the delicate interplay between resilience and impermanence. Through her lens, Afza captures intimate moments—gestures, glances, spaces imbued with memory—each photograph bearing witness to traditions upheld and histories evolving.
Born in Rawalpindi in 1955 and moving to Bradford in 1964, Afza is a self-taught photographer dedicated to documenting everyday life within diverse communities. Her distinctive style, marked by sensitivity and depth, reflects her commitment to preserving overlooked narratives, particularly within Bradford’s Jewish and South Asian communities. With an acute sensitivity to light and shadow, Kehillah transcends documentary photography, inviting viewers into a world where absence is as tangible as presence.
This exhibition is not just an archive of a vanishing community but a meditation on belonging and change, offering a rare glimpse into lives shaped by history and quiet endurance. The accompanying book is available to purchase from D Mill Reception.
Click the image to read the Guardian article.
Two Rivers
IOU’s Sculptural Sound Installation
IOU Walkway Gallery, Dean Clough, Halifax, HX3 5DJ
Monday-Friday: 08:00-20:00
Saturday-Sunday: 09:00-17:00
Created in collaboration with artist Richard Wincer, writer Louise Oliver, composer Dan Morrison and sculptor Andy Plant.
The installation fuses woodcuts, sculpture, technology, spoken word, and sound art to explore themes of evolution, heritage, legacy – the circle of life, the passage of time, the cycles of nature.
Walk through the installation and take in the sounds that echo around this atmospheric art space.
esK : ‘Cuiridh mi clach air do chárn -I’ll Put A Stone On Your Cairn’
IOU Walkway Gallery, Dean Clough
Opens 13th March 2025
Monday-Friday: 08:00-20:00
Saturday-Sunday: 09:00-17:00
IOU Artist in Residence esK (Stewart Knights) new exhibition reflects on his experience living at the IOU Hostel Hebden Bridge and his time in Calderdale.
Over his time in South Pennines, Stewart has developed a love for the cairns (purposefully stacked stones) of the hills and moors.
“Memorials and compasses pointing towards the mishmash of ideas and histories that I have come to know and love whilst here in Calderdale”.
This has led him to choose, for his final project as Artist in Residence, to create interactive cairn-like structures out of found and gifted objects. The exhibition explores how cairns could form in urban contexts using everyday materials. The original use of cairns and standing stones for rituals, navigation and memorial purposes are preserved in these interactive sculptures while also encouraging storytelling and play.
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 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.