THE pick of prints from this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition are travelling to North Yorkshire for a major exhibition at the Zillah Bell Gallery, in Thirsk.

The Summer Exhibition of the North will include originals by some of the UK’s most respected contemporary artists including Sir Michael Craig Martin, Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Tracey Emin and Cornelia Parker.

The choice of works, as in previous years, is by Norman Ackroyd, senior Royal Academician and one of Britain’s foremost landscape artists and printmakers.

The Summer Exhibition in London's Burlington House is the largest and most popular open submission contemporary art show in the world.

Mr Ackroyd's selection covers etchings, engravings, lithographs and screenprints and makes for an affordable and diverse exhibition. It opens on September 9 and runs until October 14.

“I thoroughly enjoy bringing the diversity and energy of contemporary printmaking up to my home county, and particularly to Zillah Bell where I have been exhibiting for more than 25 five years,” said Mr Ackroyd.

Heidi Donohoe, gallery manager, said: "Original prints are the most democratic of art forms. There is no other way in which the average art lover can take home an original work by a nationally-known artist whose paintings command prices beyond most people means."

Sir Michael Craig Martin is an Irish-British conceptual artist and painter who taught many of the Young British Artists. He was knighted for Services to Art in 2016. His work is exhibited in galleries around the world.

Cornelia Parker, A Turner Prize nominee, is an English sculptor and installation artist with works in the Tate Collection. She was recently named as official artist of the 2017 General Election.

Tracey Emin's raw and personal work has made her one of the UK’s most well-known artists, a Turner Prize nominee and one of the first female professors at the Royal Academy.

Eileen Cooper, painter, printmaker and sometimes called a “magic realist”, was the first woman elected Keeper of the Royal Academy and was co-ordinator of this year’s Summer Exhibition.

There will also be works by Stephen Chambers, recipient of many scholarships and awards, who has collaborated on three dance projects with the Royal Ballet, and emerging artist Prudence Ainslie, who received the Rabley Contemporary's Print Artist in Residence in Venice 2016 and has worked as studio assistant for Eileen Cooper and Tom Hammick.

For more information, visit zillahbellgallery.co.uk.