Ilkley Art Open 2025: Connections

6th Sep 2025 - 12th Oct 2025
11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Ilkley Manor House, in collaboration with Ilkley Arts, is delighted to host the second Open exhibition from 6 September to 12 October on the theme of Connections.

Building on the success of the 2023 Open, this exhibition brings a wealth of contemporary art from around the world to the House this autumn.

Ilkley Art Open 2025 showcases an extraordinary variety of mediums, reflecting the many ways artists have interpreted and expressed connections.

Visitors can admire oils painted onto board, canvas, and even cotton; works in acrylic, graphite, pastel, and charcoal; watercolours and inks.

Mixed media pieces incorporate collage, vintage paper, and even natural materials like dirt and grass!

For textile enthusiasts, there is plenty to enjoy – hand embroidery on vintage linen, upcycled wool blankets, and stitched photographic prints.

Sculptural works bring dimensionality and physical presence to the upstairs galleries, with pieces in bronze, slate, ceramic, reclaimed wood, and steel wire.

And for anyone who enjoyed our printing workshops and Ilkley’s first photography festival, there is much to delight: etchings, screen prints, archival pigment prints, cyanotypes, and photographs presented in unique formats.

The exhibition will feature both emerging and established artists from across UK and even abroad, whose work encapsulates the human experience: our relationships to place, memory, and each other.

Full artist details and additional information will be announced soon here and our social media channels.

Explore connection, appreciate thought-provoking art, and discover new perspectives.

Slider image credits: Anna Archinger, Florian Nkuriza, Fiona Arnold, and JD Lewis.

The Artists

Watercolour

Nicholas Wright | Sunflower (world) | 2024 | Watercolour and bulletproof brown ink

Oil

David AP Thomas | A Group of Unrelated Objects Brought Together and Only Making Sense Within the Context of a Painting | 2024/5 | Oil paint on canvas laid on panel

Florian Nkuriza | A View from a Window VIII | 2024 | Oil on board

J D Lewis | Boys’ Garden City | 2024 | Oil

Michelle Galloway | This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome … | 2020 | Oil on canvas

Mark Evans | Disappearing right in front of you | 2019 | Oil pastel and masking tape

Rebecca O’Hooley | Threshold | 2025 | Oil on cotton

Carol Burns | When Skies Sang And Dreams Replied | 2025 | Mixed media on wooden panel – acrylic paint, ink, graphite, oil pastel, coloured pencil and collage (both vintage paper and paper made by the artist)

Textiles

Amanda Lavery | Spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form | 2025 | Embroidery – French vintage linen with silk threads

Catherine Hill | Lancashire Rich Jam Cake | 2025 | Hand embroidered textile art

Jessica Jenyns | Tansy | 2025 | Upcycled wool blanket, upcycled duvet cover, vintage embroidery thread, felting wool

Jordan Cunliffe | Tipping Point | 2024 | Hand embroidery

Claire Cooper-Walsh | Mycelium and the Woodland Network | 2024 | Textiles

Judith Reece | Yorkshire Coast | 2024 | Textiles

Lynne Chapman | Tales of the Unexpected | 2024 | Textiles

Saira Baig | Manipulation 12 | 2023 | Recycled textiles with linocut, hand stitching and machine stitching

Zoe Boswell | 311 | | 2022 | Hand embroidery on vintage photograph

Photography

Anna Archinger | Touching Lines | | 2024 | Inkjet print on photo paper

Bianca Wallis-Salmon | Mycelium Sings To Me | 2024 | Photography

Dominic Greyer | Contact | 2009 | Giclee photographic print using archival pigment ink

Stuart Royse | Switchgear | 2022 | Archival photographic print

Willie Robb | European Ferries | 2016-18 | Photograph mounted to dibond with split baton wall fixtures

Metal

Pamela Storey | All that lies between us | 2020 | Steel wires

Victoria Chichinadze | The Soul of the Garden “Sunrise” | 2021 | Bronze, hot patina

Carole Griffiths | Mother Fork | 2024 | Bronze sculpture

Janie Stevens, The Greenthwaite Sculptor | Rhythm of Life | 2025 | Steel

Sculpture

Aleksandar Bursac | No Wrong Answers I | 2025 | Sculpture, tiles

Sean Dowker | Duality of us | 2025 | Sculpture, slate

Laura Timmis | I Was Here | 2024 | Ceramic sculpture

Penelope Pendle Hayes | Conversation | 2024 | Ceramic stoneware

Maria Muruaga | Resilience petals | 2025 | Clay sculpture

Yixue Yang | Porous Presences | 2025 | Ceramics and glass

Susan J Hart | Of Awe and Aura | 2025 | Air-hardening clay, wire netting and acrylic paint on oak dowel and oak plinth

Acrylic

Zully Mejía | Cau Cau | 2024 | Acrylic on linen

Bridget March | Crossings | 2024 | Acrylic on canvas

Caroline Smith | The Race | 2025 | Acrylic on board

Cherryl Brunel | A quiet cloak (No.3) | 2024 | Acrylic inks and woodblock print on paper

Dom Chastney | Couple on their phones | 2025 | Acrylic on plywood

Janet Mayled | Making tea with dinosaurs | 2023 | Acrylic on hot-pressed watercolour paper

John Taylor | DUO | 2025 | Acrylic-painted card collage on board

Lucy Rogers-Smith | Celestial | 2024 | Acrylic and graphite on canvas, UV satin varnished, framed in a solid oak wooden tray frame

Nicola Rawnsley | Habitat | 2025 | Acrylic on oak veneer

Rachel Anzalone | 2nd Rinse | 2018 | Acrylic, graphite, thread, dirt, grass on bedsheet

Simon Baker | King Christopher and Queen Sarah-Jane | 2025 | Acrylic on cardboard

Wood

Fay Kinsella | Loom Marsden | 2018 | Laser-etched plywood, inlaid and stitched Perspex and wood

Fiona Arnold | Farmer’s Wife’s Basket | 2025 | Willow

Louise Garland | Broken Circuit | 2024 | Reclaimed wood, vintage electrical fittings, mixed media

Simon Raines | Sketch For The Vertical No 44 (The Temple Steps) | 2024 | Recycled plywood and black wax pigment

Print

Alexandra Sivov | Free Chat | 2025 | Silkscreen on papier mâché structure

Bridget Tempest | Old Trees | 2025 | Etching

Flora Lu | Audience in the Exhibition | 2025 | Etching

Jim Fox | Woman With Dove | 2024 | Screen print

Joanne O’Connor | Connection Points | 2025 | Mixed media, print, paper and stitch on board

Kathryn Fox | Permutations Nos 1 to 5 | 2020-25 | Screen prints on Snowdon cartridge paper

Maja Spasova | HANDS | 2021 | Cyanotype

Max PhV | A Thousand Hands | 2024 | Print on canvas

Paul Tranter | What remains | 2025 | Hand-pulled screen print on Ordnance Survey map and World Atlas

Sally Castle | Menwith | 2024 | Relief print

Paper

Claire Anscomb | Prompt: A Victorian Stereograph of Ancient Egypt | 2023 | Graphite on paper

Daniel Hester | The Eternal Familiarity of Maternal Bonding | 2025 | Pencil on Bristol Paper

Delia Zorzoliu | Antique Blouse Pin | 2025 | Ink on pastel paper

Ian Hodgson | Pulse | 2025 | Pastel on paper

Maria Motowylczyk | Neolithic: 1 | 2025 | Charcoal on paper

 

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Accessibility Information
This exhibition runs on weekends from 6 September to 12 October. Ilkley Manor House is open on weekends from 11am to 4pm. Entry is free unless stated otherwise; no booking is required. Please check the website and our social media for the latest updates before visiting.

Please note this exhibition takes place upstairs in the Western and Solar Galleries, accessible via a staircase of 18 steps.

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