Material Conversations; A Contemporary Exhibition Of Mixed Media And Collage

The Bingley gallery is pleased to present Material Conversations, a dynamic new exhibition celebrating the expressive possibilities of mixed media and collage. Opening 21st May and running until 28th June, the exhibition brings together a diverse group of locally-based contemporary artists whose work explores texture, memory, materiality, and transformation through layered visual languages. Featuring works that combine paper, paint, photography, found objects, textiles, printmaking, and digital processes, Material Conversations highlights the evolving nature of collage as both an artistic method and a conceptual framework. The exhibition invites audiences into a world where fragments are reassembled into new narratives, blurring the boundaries between abstraction and representation, personal history and collective experience.

At a time dominated by digital imagery and rapid consumption, the works in Material Conversations reflects a growing resurgence of interest in material-based practices within contemporary art emphasising the value of touch, process, and re-cycling everyday materials. Many of the techniques are by no means new. The traditional art of paper cutting has a very long history. Whilst some producers now harness laser cutting, other artists keep with the painstaking hand cutting. A remarkable exponent of this is Anna Cook, whose exquisite papercut work focusses on British wildlife. The York St. John’s University art graduate explained that paper is cut with a scalpel, before embossing and sculpting the individual elements. These are then built them up in layers in box frames to produce three-dimensional artworks. Anna’s approach is taken a stage further in a unique collaboration, with fellow York artist Adele Karmazyn, blending digital photo montage and paper cutting. Adele’s source material is Victorian photographs and their treatment involves digital manipulation and embellishment with traditional media such as paper, paint and gold leaf. The addition of Anna’s cut paper in a box frame creates wonderfully imaginative worlds where time is forgotten.

We’re delighted to welcome Richard Burel to the gallery for his first exhibition with us. An internationally acclaimed artist born in Normandy, Burel divides his time between Sicily and Yorkshire, where he is based in Burley in Wharfedale. While he is widely recognised for his vibrant cityscapes from around the world, the Yorkshire landscape has become an equally important source of inspiration for his richly textured mixed media work. Combining layered paint, printed elements, and contrasting textures, Burel’s technique creates compositions that are both expressive and immersive. Rather than seeking precise representation, he captures the spirit of a place — its rhythm, atmosphere, and imperfections. Bold colour palettes, shifting perspectives, and playful details draw viewers into landscapes that feel both familiar and dreamlike. Filled with unexpected visual moments, his works reward close looking and convey a strong sense of joy and discovery.

Josie Barraclough’s work has frequently featured at the gallery. After a career teaching art –where, by all accounts she was an inspirational teacher, she now focusses on her own creativity and has developed a distinctive style. Vibrant and joyful still lifes and studies in which painting in oils or acrylics is combined with printed paper and other media.

Bradford-based Siyma Hussain is a more recent artist on the local scene artist. She gained a BTEC Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds City Art College and studied Jewellery Design at Bradford College. After some intensive volunteering during Bradford’s City of Culture events she’s now determined to develop her own creative output. Always keen for a challenge, her contributions to this show include a papier-mâché dress.

Nancy Stedman has four works that focus on coastal shorelines, those indeterminate boundaries of erosion and accretion which constantly shift and change, where materials get washed up and stranded, then washed away again. She explained ‘The way I create them reflects this indeterminacy and change; it’s a dynamic and iterative process, where I place pieces of collage, other materials and textures and then allow pigments to flow past and around the obstructions’.

With fourteen artists in total the list of contributors is extensive and include Paul Hudson (no, not the weatherman!) who works in a wide range of media from print, paint, ceramics and textile and is happy to combine these in single works. Ian Tothill is the founder of the South Square Collage club and uses the technique widely, often gathering source material from a particular geographic location, relevant to the subject of hie work. Judy Sale, another artist with an international background, now works from her studio and home near Haworth. Whilst she does paint in single media, recently she’s been incorporating printed paper and even dried vegetation into her art pieces. Two works, ‘Talk’ and ‘Scream’ are from her speechless series of 2024-25 when she lost her voice for three years and her frustration from this was expressed through her art. Perhaps not strictly within the boundaries of mixed media we’ve included some fantastical digital photo montages from Daniel Shiel.

The artists featured in the exhibition approach collage and mixed media not simply as techniques, but as a way of seeing and interpreting the contemporary world. Through processes of cutting, layering, erasing, and reconstructing, the works reflect themes of identity, urban life, memory, environmental change, and the overload of visual culture. Each piece reveals a dialogue between destruction and creation, chance and intention.

The exhibition opens with a preview between 7 and 9pm on Weds 20 May, where guests will have the opportunity to meet participating artists and view the works in conversation with one another. Admission is free and all are welcome. For press enquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact: The exhibition runs at the independent Bingley Gallery from 21st May until 28th June 2026. Normal gallery hours are Thurs to Sun 10am to 5pm