Bradford's Trapezium Gallery is pleased to present Small Works, Wall Works, an exhibition by Yorkshire Sculptors Group, a dynamic collective of sculptors working across the Yorkshire region, established in 1985.

Small Works, Wall Works is a new exhibition focusing on small-scale sculptural practice and encompasses a broad and diverse range of sculptural materials and conceptual themes. The exhibition features small works in fired clay, stitched fabric, carved stone, wood constructions, and mixed media. Each artist uses their chosen materials to explore individual ideas and experiences.

Carole Griffiths, spokesperson for the group explains, “Sculpture has historically privileged large-scale works in public and institutional spaces. As a result, smaller sculptural works are frequently marginalised or understood primarily as preparatory objects rather than artworks in their own right. These smaller works however, often retain a heightened sense of interest by revealing the artist’s hand.”

She continues, “The intimate scale of the small works in this exhibition invites close viewing and allows audiences to encounter sculpture as a site of process, material inquiry, and sensory experience. By using wall-based display strategies, we create conditions that encourage close observation and reconsideration of scale as a critical factor in sculptural practice.”

Carole’s own work in the exhibition draws on domestic life, everyday objects, and organic matter, transforming familiar forms to explore female identity, motherhood, and autobiographical experience in thoughtful and unexpected ways. Her wall-based work Sea–She: Scarred Skin of Leather reflects on how we live within our bodies over time.

Simon Raines creates carefully constructed abstract works inspired by landscapes and workshop tools. Made from plywood and black wax pigment, they reflect a dialogue between natural forms and constructed systems. Vincent James makes sculpture, collage and animation based on objects appropriated from cartoons, creating surreal and whimsical interactions.

Sarah Villeneau seeks to bridge the divide between the physiology of the human body and humanity’s tendency to reject its corporeal and animal nature by bringing the inside out, presenting abstracted yet highly suggestive bodily forms. Catwalk Necklace, a piece of wearable art, references both the visceral body and high fashion, questioning conventions of beauty and decorum. Liadin Cooke combines materials like wax, brass and clay, and other materials creating work that simultaneously evokes fragility and resilience alongside an awareness of weight, touch, and movement. In her piece ‘Collapsed Blimp’ she conducts an examination of air.