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Find out what exhibitions are on at the Mercer Art Gallery.
Liz West - H.A.P.P.Y exhibition
Dates: 13 April until 5 October 2025
Price: free
Acclaimed British artist Liz West brings a mesmerizing exhibition to the Mercer, inviting audiences to experience a dazzling interplay of light, space and reflection.
Through her art, Liz West creates playful experiences and environments that heighten our senses and positively affect how we feel. She is interested in our deep human connection to colour and light, and how they can evoke physical, psychological and emotional responses in us.
The title of this exhibition reflects Liz’s experience of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), a condition linked to the shorter and darker days of autumn and winter. She experiments with colour and light to create environments that inspire joy and curiosity.
At the heart of this exhibition is Our Colour Reflection, an immersive installation made of hundreds of vibrantly coloured reflective discs arranged across the floor of our 1806 Promenade Room, transforming this important space from Harrogate’s spa history into a dazzling interplay of light, space, and reflection.
For the first time in many years, the windows in this space are revealed to allow natural light to flood in, creating an ever-changing kaleidoscope of reflections. Every experience of the installation is different depending on light levels, weather, clouds and the path of the sun. As we move through the space, our perspectives shift, revealing new combinations of colour and light in an absorbing sensory experience.
In a unique collaboration, West’s work has inspired the Leeds-based electronic producer, musician and artist Cherry Seraph (the alias of Sophie Russell) to create a new sound piece which will play continuously in the gallery. Both artists explore how frequencies of sound and light can impact our emotional well-being.
In addition, the exhibition brings together for the first time West’s works on paper to showcase a collection of three-dimensional ‘concertina’ pieces and experimental drawings that reveal her instinctive and intellectual engagement with the emotive qualities of colour. The artist has also selected artworks and artefacts from Harrogate’ museum collections to reflect upon our responses to colour and light.
Vision and Labour: Making Comics exhibition
The art of Avery Hill Publishing
Dates: 18 October 2025 to 26 April 2026
Featuring the work of: Kristyna Bacynski, Tim Bird, Katriona Chapman, Tom Humberstone, Charlot Kristensen, B.Mure, Owen D. Pomery, Claire Scully, J. Webster Sharp, Rachel Smith, Lizzy Stewart, Lucy Sullivan, Zoe Thorogood, Donya Todd, Tillie Walden, and George Wylesol.
The Mercer Art Gallery has teamed up with Avery Hill Publishing to create an exhibition showcasing some of today’s most exciting comics' creators. Created in partnership with the Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, the exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into the work of leading comic artists, and an important snapshot of the UK comics landscape over the past decade.
Avery Hill Publishing are a London-based independent publisher of comics, graphic novels and art books. Best known for being the first to publish work by breakout comic stars like Tillie Walden and Zoe Thorogood, they have gone on to develop an exciting slate of up-and-coming artists, a catalogue of diverse and compelling books, and have won numerous awards and acclaim along the way.
Avery Hill recently celebrated their tenth year as a publisher, and this exhibition offers an in-depth exploration of their work. It is an important retrospective that charts their early days publishing zines in the London small press scene, through to today’s carefully and lovingly produced high-quality graphic novels which are sold across the world.
On display will be original artwork by 16 diverse artists, shown alongside their finished books, and filmed interviews. The exhibition will give insights into the creative process of making comics, and the different working practices of each artist, ranging from meticulous ink drawings to spectacular, digitally-created imagery.
The Stories Pictures Tell exhibition
Dates: 18 October 2025 to 26 April 2026
Artists Kristyna Bacynski and Katriona Chapman have delved into Harrogate’s art collection to select an exciting mix of images that resonate with their own work as graphic novelists and comic creators.
Discover paintings with a compelling narrative, fascinating characters, and that enticing sense of ‘…what might happen next?’
Their selection ranges from story-filled Victorian paintings by W.P. Frith and Frank Holl, to the intriguing work of the acclaimed contemporary artist Caroline Walker.
Just bring your imagination!
