A GALLERY in North Yorkshire is to show work from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.

The Zillah Bell Gallery, in Thirsk, will display prints by more than 40 leading artists which were selected for this year’s 246th summer exhibition in the capital.

Curated by Royal Academician Norman Ackroyd, this major exhibition, which opens on September 6, will include originals by leading contemporary artists in the UK, including Michael Craig-Martin, Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Albert Irvin, Barbara Rae, Cornelia Parker, and Turner Prize nominee Ian Davenport.

It will give art lovers in the region an opportunity to see and buy original prints by artists whose work is rarely on show in the North.

Other leading names include Joe Tilson, one of the leading figures associated with the British Pop Art movement in the 1960s, Allen Jones, also a British pop artist, English painter, sculptor and printmaker, and engraver and printmaker Peter Freeth, who won the Prix de Rome for engraving in 1960 and was elected a Royal Academician in 1991.

Mr Ackroyd, one of the country’s most celebrated landscape artists, is a highly respected international printmaker who regularly exhibits in Thirsk. He was made a CBE for services to engraving in 2007.

The gallery invited him to curate this exhibition encompassing the huge range of contemporary work in different print mediums.

He said: “The new upstairs gallery at Zillah Bell has given me the opportunity to bring some of the best prints produced in the UK in the past year to the heart of Yorkshire.

“I have tried to reflect the diversity and energy existing throughout the UK across all print media, traditional and new.”

The exhibition, which runs until November 1, represents a major achievement for the gallery, which has earned a reputation over the past 25 years as one of the most exciting independent exhibition spaces outside London.

John Bell, director, said: “Original printmaking is the most democratic of art forms, putting work by major artists within range of the more modest budget.

“We are extremely flattered to have so much outstanding work by major contemporary artists from all over the UK.”

Last year, the exhibition space at Zillah Bell doubled in size with the addition of an upper gallery space specifically designed for the exhibition of work by contemporary printmakers.

The Royal Academy of Arts in Yorkshire opens with a preview on Friday, September 5, from 6.30- 8.30pm. More details can be found at zillahbellgallery.co.uk, by calling 01845 522479 or emailing info@ zillahbellgallery.co.uk