Responses, A Retrospective

Bradford's Trapezium Gallery is pleased to present its first exhibition of 2025 at its new premises at 54 Kirkgate in Bradford City Centre. (Two doors down from our previous location).

Ken Woods, a co-founder of Trapezium Gallery says, “After the disappointment of having to relocate at the end of last year, we are delighted to open our new venue with this exceptional exhibition that showcases both Bradford’s printmaking talent and the region’s heritage. Our volunteers have worked tirelessly to create a space with the scope to show exciting, new exhibitions and we hope as many people as possible will make the effort to visit this and future exhibitions.”

Responses is a retrospective exhibition by Inkers, who are a group of independent contemporary printmakers based in Yorkshire.  Working together since 2000, Inkers' members pursue successful independent practices as exhibiting artists, educators & writers, and come together to collaborate, exhibit and share practice.

June Russell, spokesperson for the group says, “All of us are Fine Art Printmakers, and make work that is original in both concept and construction. Between us we use a wide range of printmaking techniques, both traditional and contemporary, often in combination, and sometimes embracing non-print techniques during development and experimentation.  We have members who specialize in screen printing, collagraph, etching, drypoint, lino & relief printing, monoprint and monotype, photographic methods… and innovative mixtures of all of these."

June continues, "A particular focus of our collaborative work involves working with museums and galleries, researching and responding to them and to their collections creatively through the medium of print.

Our first two creative collaborations were with Bradford Museums and Galleries; at Bradford Industrial Museum (2014-15) and then Cliffe Castle (2016-17).  In 2019-20 we had an excursion to the Ropewalk Gallery in Barton-on-Humber and then, most recently, back to Bradford, for an Arts Council funded project working with the Bradford Textile Archive, which concluded with a major exhibition at the Dyehouse Gallery at Bradford College in 2023.

In our response work, we’ve been inspired to push the boundaries of printmaking; you’ll see woven prints, layered prints, 3D constructions, artist’s books and more, on a vast range of topics: landscapes, machines, mills, looms, ropes, working men and women, birds, bees, mummies …. all inspired by the museums, galleries and collections of our city, district and region.”

This retrospective exhibition is a look back at work produced for these collaborative projects. The work being shown, produced over almost twenty years, responds to the rich industrial, educational and creative heritage of Yorkshire and in particular the Bradford District, which seems apt in its year as City of Culture.