Two exciting new art exhibitions from Northern artists Dale Holmes and Lindsey Bull have opened at Huddersfield Art Gallery.

The exhibitions will be officially launched on Sunday July 3 from 1pm with artists’ talks and a private view of the exhibitions.

Dale Holmes – Welcome to Rat Catcher’s School for Good Dogs Tennis Club

Dale Holmes is a painter from Barnsley who lives in Paddock, Huddersfield. He is a senior lecturer in Contemporary Art at the University of Huddersfield. Since 1999 he has exhibited his work nationally and internationally both as Dale Holmes and as part of the collective research project Material Conjectures and works as part of the art collective Totaller. 

Dale’s new exhibition ‘Welcome to Rat Catcher’s School for Good Dogs Tennis Club’ includes Riso prints, paintings, rugs, a floor based sculptural drawing, jogging suits and sweatshirts and a commissioned text from writer Jamie Sutcliffe.

Themes within the exhibition include folk horror, drystone walls, medieval myths and images of animals with human qualities that you might find in margins of medieval manuscripts, to the phenomenon of dance plagues across Northern Europe, the folklore of sportswear and the community of amateur sports clubs.

Lindsey Bull – Mirror

Lindsey Bull lives and works in Manchester and has exhibited widely, nationally and internationally and has work included in many private collections throughout the world.

Mirror is Lindsey’s first solo exhibition in a public-funded gallery. The exhibition premieres a new body of work created for the show, exploring performance, fashion and gender.

The paintings explore multiple transformations of self and collective identities with clothing imparting knowledge and meaning – a signifier of self and identity.

Themes of rituals, theatre and landscape inform Bull’s work. Colour and light are used to ethereal effect, stemming from the artist’s interest in 1960s psychedelia and how light and colour is used to emotionally charge sacred rites and rituals.

Lindsey Bull said: “I am so excited to be showing my paintings at Huddersfield Art Gallery: Unit 7. Not only is it a fantastic space, but has a wonderful reputation for contemporary painting shows.

“From exhibiting at Huddersfield Art Gallery in 2016 with the Contemporary British Painting Prize, I am now having a solo exhibition with the gallery. I feel that I have come a long way.”

An artwork by Lindsay Bull

Clr Will Simpson, Cabinet member for culture and greener Kirklees, said: “It is important that Kirklees residents can access free and inclusive art and cultural events in our community, so I’m delighted that we are welcoming two more exciting artists to Huddersfield Art Gallery to continue our varied programme of exhibitions.”

The exhibitions are part of the Cultures of Place festival, a celebratory showcase of exhibitions, installations, performances, workshops, podcasts, talks and discussion about place.

The project is led by the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Huddersfield, in collaboration with Temporary Contemporary and Kirklees Council.

Both exhibitions are at Huddersfield Art Gallery: Unit 7, The Piazza Shopping Centre, Princess Alexandra Walk, Huddersfield, HD1 2RS, and will run until Saturday September 3 2022.

The Art Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11am-4pm and is free to visit.