Skellig Extended – Norman Ackroyd exhibition extended at Thirsk’s Zillah Bell Gallery
Until 13 January 2016
The popular ‘Skellig Revisited’ exhibition by Senior Royal Academician Norman Ackroyd will be extended by 11 days, it was revealed today by Thirsk’s Zillah Bell Gallery. This series of new works will now remain on display in North Yorkshire until Wednesday 13 January 2016.
The exhibition brings together the latest body of work from the Senior Royal Academician, including a series of 10 aquatints which make up the ‘Skellig Revisited’ collection, and a number of other watercolours and etchings inspired by three trips that the artist made to Great Skellig and other islands off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, earlier this year.
“The run-up to Christmas is such a hectic time, but this is a collection that warrants spending some time to enjoy, so we’ve decided to add an extra week and a half to the end of the exhibition so that everyone who wants to see it can do so, in Norman’s favourite gallery,” comments gallery owner, John Bell. “Admission to the gallery is completely free, and if anyone is looking for a rather special Christmas present, this is a wonderful time to pick up a unique piece from one of the most collectible artists in the country.”
Zillah Bell Gallery is open over the Christmas period until 5.00pm on Christmas Eve, then reopening 10am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 5.00pm from 29 December (closed New Year’s Day and Sundays). The Gallery is located on Kirkgate (follow signed for The World of James Herriott), and also features a collection of paintings, prints and ceramics by selected artists, as well as handmade jewellery. For more details, please visit www.zillahbellgallery.co.uk or call 01845 522479.
About the exhibition
Norman Ackroyd explains: “I first visited the monastery on Great Skellig, Skellig Michael, back in the mid-1980s, and found the experience extraordinary, climbing up 600 steps to see a monastery built 1400 years ago yet still in fantastic condition. It is incredible that people chose to live here, on an island where 21stcentury visitors are only permitted to land in fair weather – it is a dangerous place,” explains Ackroyd. “Thirty years ago, it was completely deserted, but now people are starting to wake up to this place which is every bit as impressive as Stonehenge, and so we arranged to land on the island at 2pm, when most of the visitors had left so we had the island to ourselves again. I was drawing all the time, understanding the island through my hand and eye and the marks I was making.”
About Great Skellig
Great Skellig is the larger of the two Skellig islands off the coast of Ireland’s County Kerry. The monastery that sits on the top of this bleak island is thought to have been built 1400 years ago, and is at the centre of a series of linked up monastic communities built on islands on the edge of the Atlantic. The site was made a World Heritage Site in 1996 thanks to its unique example of an early religious settlement, illustrating "as no other site can, the extremes of a Christian monasticism characterizing much of North Africa, the Near East and Europe”.
About the artist - Norman Ackroyd CBE RA
Norman Ackroyd studied at Leeds College of Art from 1956 to 1961, and subsequently at the Royal College of Art, London from 1961 to 1964. Ackroyd has had many solo exhibitions, both in Britain and internationally. He has also received several public mural commissions, produced in etched stainless steel or bronze. Recent commissions include Lloyds Bank, British Airways, Cambridge University, a bronze mural for the Main Hall of the British Embassy, Moscow.
Norman Ackroyd was elected a Royal Academician in 1991 and was made Senior Fellow, Royal College of Art in 2000. Ackroyd lives and works in London.
When asked why he chose the Zillah Bell Gallery to display his work, he replied:
“Unlike the big cities, Thirsk is a wonderful market town where you can park easily, find great food and wonderful places to stay – and just two stops from London on the new Grand Central train services from Kings Cross, so there’s no excuse for any city-based art lover to think it is too far to travel. The gallery itself is beautiful for hanging prints – it would be wonderful to think that this could be the Northern base for an exhibition of Whistler’s or Picasso’s works in the future, it is such a special space. This is the place where the next generation of artists should be aspiring to display their work.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Interviews can be organise with Norman Ackroyd at his studio in Bermondsey (in person or by telephone) or with gallery manager, Sarah Greenslade.
For further media information or photographs, please contact:
Jay Commins or Samantha Orange
Pyper York Limited
Tel: 01904 500698
Email: jay@pyperyork.co.uk or sam@pyperyork.co.uk
