A NEW online art gallery from Trapezium Arts is now open to artists from across the Bradford district.

Trapezium Online Gallery is inviting submissions for its May ‘Open Gallery’ - encouraging art from the current lockdown period.

Ken Woods of Trapezium Arts said: “Our gallery on Kirkgate in the city centre is closed for the present but we’re still very keen to continue showing art made by local people.

“The Online Gallery has been up and running for a month, with over 50 pieces of work to view in April’s gallery. These include all sorts of art forms - from drawing and painting to photography and textiles.

“We are keen to continue showing artistic endeavours to help people through these difficult times.”

The Online Gallery also has a series of individual galleries in which work by a single artist can be shown. Ken says there will be a small fee for the individual galleries, with the money going to pay the rent on the Kirkgate gallery, which Trapezium is eager to re-launch when the lockdown is lifted.

Trapezium Arts is a volunteer-run independent contemporary art and photography gallery showing art from all walks of life, a wide range of art genres on a range of themes, in a welcoming, accessible way. Exhibitions, which rotate monthly, display an eclectic mix of artwork on a range of themes.

Says Ken: “The aims of Trapezium is to exhibit quality contemporary art, create opportunities for artists, photographers and community groups to display their work and to help revitalise an area that has seen a decline in retail activity and provide a new opportunity for visiting the city.

“We’re exhibiting a variety of art in a way that’s easily accessible - people can walk straight in off the street - and we provide artists with a supportive space to display their work.”

Trapezium Arts is also showcasing previous exhibitions online. They include Beauty in Decay, which was at the gallery earlier this year; a set of striking images by Bradford photographer Simon Sugden of derelict and abandoned buildings.

They include old mills, hospitals and morgues, an empty Victorian swimming pool with chipped tiles, a war memorial flanked by fading icons in an empty church, and once elegant townhouses now weed-choked and sinking beneath layers of dirt.

Simon’s images capture a strange beauty of dereliction and highlight the way that once thriving sites of industry, leisure and domestic life are being re-claimed by nature and the elements.

He has spent 10 years capturing decaying architecture and other sites across the UK, including Drummonds Mill in Bradford, the old funfair at Shipley Glen Tramway, the former Richard Dunn Sports Centre and the ballroom at High Royds psychiatric hospital in Menston.

His images of ‘lost buildings’ are featured in a new book, Derelict Britain: Beauty In Decay.

* Visit Gallery TrapeziumArts.com