The Gallery at Munro House

This gallery is just what Leeds has been waiting for. A great calendar of changing independent exhibitions from which you can purchase works. Excellent for the ever growing art and design scene across Leeds. The space is also bookable for private viewings and exhibitions. And it’s free to go!
Café 164 in which this gallery leads from is lovely too and worth stopping by at! Lovely cakes and hot drinks — white hot chocolate anyone? Mmmm… The bookshop across the hall — Colours May Vary is brilliant also.
I came to the gallery twice over the weekend to see ‘One by One — By the Way’ which displays photographs of the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers by Tony Woolliscroft who toured with the bands over two decades. We loved this exhibition and it brought back memories of gigs we had been to which had been photographed by Wooliscroft. There are some amazing shots of Dave Grohl and Anthony Kiedis and all are available to buy in various sizes. The exhibition is only on till Thursday 28^th Feb so get there quick!
All I could say this place could do to improve is have some more information around the gallery, the footnotes by each work could be vinyl or mounted card — this might look a little more professional, and the staff could engage a bit more with the viewers and give a little insite to the exhibition. Regardless this is an excellent space and worth a frequent visit with some every interesting work on display which often appeals more to popular culture than Leeds Art Gallery.

Admittedly, I don’t often visit the galleries and museums in Leeds, and that’s a huge faux pas on my part. It’s not through a lack of interest in art, nor a lack of intention, but the classic ‘I never seem to find the time’ excuse rears its ugly head and six months have passed and I still haven’t had a look in to some of Leeds’ more cultural and exciting spaces. Shame on me.
So, when I realised I was available to see the third installment of ‘The Grief Series: What is left’ last night at Leeds Gallery, I dived on the opportunity. Let me explain what I know about The Leeds Gallery. It’s a new (ish) space in Leeds for exhibitions, and a welcome one, since it offers something very different to the stalwart that is the Leeds Art Gallery on the other side of town. From all the exhibitions I have read about (sign up to their newsletter for the latest) the focus is a far cry from the more classic art collection you can find across the way.
For starters, it’s a commercial gallery, which means you can actually purchase art there. They specialise in photography, fine art and illustration, which means you get a fantastic range of art to peruse– I’m still regretting not making it over to see the Back 2 Basics flyer exhibition. One of the other major boons is that the gallery is attached to Café 164, which means you can while away a good hour or so taking in what’s on, and the bob next door for a fantastic cuppa and piece of cake. And when I say fantastic, I mean fantastic.
The exhibition last night was one night only deal, but even so, incredibly well displayed and brilliantly interactive. The exhibition displayed portraits of people, holding/​wearing an object they had inherited from someone that they had lost, as part of The Grief Series ongoing research and development project. (Look it up, it’s really worth checking out.) Each portrait came with a booklet, with excerpt transcripts from the audio where they were discussing the object and the person connected to it, which you could listen to via headphones whilst looking at the portraits. A lovely touch was that each portrait had a chair –armchair/​stool –to sit on whilst listening and viewing. Essentially, the exhibition was fantastic, thought provoking, and really well put together. Just hearing and seeing the range of different people discuss loss through an object that linked them to their person was fascinating to be immersed in, and certainly made me think.
So. Essentially, what I need to do is get out and see more. With an ever changing range of emerging and established talent, programme of events and more, this place is certainly not to be overlooked. Take a constitutional down past the bus station, and head for Munro House.