‘Tidal Shifts’ at the EDAN Gallery in Seaham Harbour is a group exhibition that is part of the Seascapes marine heritage project. Seascapes is a four-year programme. It features many creative and exciting projects that are aiming to boost visibility and s…

The ‘Wye Aye Lego Man’ photography exhibition is a brilliant showcase of artists with learning disabilities, and they’re all from the north-east. Lego is more popular than ever, which leads me to think that this exhibition is going to be a huge hit. It ce…

The Farrell Centre – a new centre for architecture and cities, based in Newcastle – is opening to the public in April. Hooray! The Farrell Centre combines a public gallery, research hub, and community space, and will be free to enter. And their inaugural …

‘Deep Horizons’ at Mima starts with the topic of excavation and presents sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, ceramics, photography and moving image from the last 50 years. ‘Deep Horizons’ is a wide-ranging group show that has pulled out all sorts …

It doesn’t start until May, but we’re too excited about Conrad Milne’s new exhibition to keep it to ourselves any longer. Brace yourself for ‘Fragments’. The pieces in Conrad Milne’s new exhibition don’t have focal points. Instead, they send your eye skit…

Chris Killip was one of the UK’s foremost documentary photographers, and a wide-ranging retrospective of his work at BALTIC shines a particular light on his northern pictures. From old fellas dipping their heads against fierce winter winds, to kids playin…

For three nights in April, Newcastle Cathedral is hosting an audio-visual trail that has been put together by six artists in order to celebrate humanity and our search for hope. Well, this is going to be simply incredible. Newcastle Cathedral is – without…

One of the UK’s best, and friendliest, art shows returns to Cumbria this spring. I’ve fallen head over heels in love with the work of Hilary Paynter (that’s her ‘St. Kilda Blue’ pictured). And clearly I’m not the only one enamoured by her stuff as she is …

Paintings created using coal are part of a superb new exhibition by Katherine Renton at the wonderful Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery in Alnwick. Katherine Renton completed these stunning pieces following a recent move to Shilbottle in Northumberland where h…

Artist Jake Wood’s latest installation ‘Muscle Mary’ examines what happens when bodybuilding and queer identity meet, in a typically off-beat DIY piece. Jake Wood is a Kent-based artist focused on melding comedy and performance with his own personal physi…

Side Gallery is hosting ‘A Wounded Landscape’, the world exhibition premiere of photographer Marc Wilson’s personal journey, bearing witness to the Holocaust. This image – Miško street, Kaunas, Lithuania, 2019 – may look like a fairly innocuous bit of lan…

Jhanee Wilkins’ first solo exhibition ‘Black Britain’ explores autobiographical subjects relating to feminism, immigration, racism and identity. Jhanee Wilkins – an artist-photographer and filmmaker – graduated in MA Photography at Sunderland University a…

Gillian Lee Smith has won Museums Northumberland’s annual Open Exhibition for her splendid painting ‘Roots Break Rock (Quarry Trees at Belsay)’. You can see it – and the best of the other entries – at Woodhorn Museum. Take it away Gillian Lee Smith: “This…

Mark Pinder is one of the most feted photographers in the north, and his latest exhibition captures the changing face of the region – and beyond – over the past few decades. An unemployed man digs for scrap metal. The ‘March for Brexit’ begins in Sunderla…

Two fabulous new exhibitions at BALTIC have caught the attentions of Gail-Nina Anderson. As we hurtle towards the Spring Equinox, looking forward to that blessed day when we can turn off the central heating and prepare to loll about in pale sunshine on gr…

The Hatton Gallery are exploring the work of Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham with a large-scale exhibition entitled ‘Paths to Abstraction’. I’ve got a tea-towel with a Wilhelmina Barns-Graham print on it. Get me! If you don’t know her work then yo…

Ancient Egypt has long since attracted the attention of artists and designers, and a new exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery is delving deep into this particular fascination. When one thinks of ancient Egypt, one invariably thinks of it in highly visual t…

‘The Lost Spells: Listening to a Landscape of Voices’ is an immersive exhibition featuring original artwork, soundscapes and interactive experiences. ‘The Lost Spells…’ features artwork and words by artist Jackie Morris and writer Robert Mcfarlane, which …

Gail-Nina Anderson checks out BALTIC’s latest shows and pulls out four plums. Once upon a time, even within the living memory of BALTIC-goers, contemporary art prided itself on an ivory tower approach, where formal qualities were headlined over content, v…

‘Permanent Marker’ is a solo exhibition by Manchester-based artist Nina Chua, which you can see at Workplace Foundation. I love the feeling you get when you pop the top off a brand new marker pen (and no, I not talking about the heady aroma). When you’re …