Zillah Bell Contemporary Art

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The Zillah Bell Art Gallery is an independent contemporary art gallery housed in a Grade II Listed Building in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England. Since opening in 1988 it has more than doubled its wall space and is a venue for a variety of contemporary artists. The gallery exhibits a wide variety of local and national artists including among others, Norman Ackroyd, Deirdre Borlase, Colin Britton, Mike Clay, Robin Hazlewood, Jason Hicklin, Roger Kohn, Janet Moodie and Jonathan Trowell.

1 Exhibitions
2 Artist's List
3 Gallery
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Exhibitions

Exhibitions at the Zillah Bell Gallery change monthly with annual Summer and Christmas exhibitions, the latter serving partly as a retrospective of the year and including the work of both established and up and coming Artists.

In 1996 and 2000, the surrealist artist, writer and extraordinary 'box-maker' Anthony Earnshaw, a close friend of the owner, exhibited there with Another G&T in 1996 and Flowers 2 in 2000.^[1] Earnshaw, who died in 2001 was heavily influenced by the artist Paul Klee.

Dating back to the 18th Century, the building retains original features such as the range. Prior to becoming a gallery, the building was an electrical shop.

In 2005 the owner of the Zillah Bell Gallery, John Bell, invited several artists to participate in an exhibition of work on Paddy's Hole. ^[2] Paddy's Hole is a small, man made harbour on the South Gare breakwater peninsula at the mouth of the River Tees on Teesside. A fishing boat repair works, nuclear power station, steelworks, lighthouse and golf course combine to create a most unusual and otherworldly little place. The exhibition was a multi-media event. Among other artistsRoger Kohn produced several landscape drawings inspired by the location. One of the more unusual exhibits at this event was a cabinet of tea cakes created out of material salvaged in the harbour by the artist, David Winfield.

In March 2007 refurbishments were completed to repair and modernise the gallery.

The gallery is named after owner John Bell’s youngest daughter Zillah who, along with her sister Daisy Bell, was responsible for organising the Art of Care auction of postcards held in Edinburgh, 2005.^[3] Artists who exhibited at the Art of Care Auction included Sir Paul McCartney, David Hockney, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst.