This autumn, 108 Fine Art presents Sugar Rush, an exhibition of paintings by British artist Nicholas Jolly at the gallery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Opening on Saturday 19th September 2026, Sugar Rush brings together a selection of Jolly’s paintings. Figures, animals and everyday objects appear in unexpected combinations, creating scenes that are at once familiar and to some, slightly unsettling.

Colour, humour and detailed observation run throughout Sugar Rush. Jolly places subjects together, allowing each painting to suggest its own narrative.

A selection of works can be viewed and purchased at 108 Fine Art throughout the exhibition, with further works from Sugar Rush available to purchase online.

Sugar Rush continues until Saturday 31st October 2026.

Exhibition Details

Opening Date: Saturday 19th September 2026
Closing Date: Saturday 31st October 2026
Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Gallery Hours: Open 11am–5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.

For further information about the exhibition and available works, please contact: exhibitions@108fineart.com

Nicholas Jolly

Since 2002, 108 Fine Art in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, has cared for and exhibited the Joash Woodrow Archive. For more than two decades, the gallery has researched, catalogued and preserved Woodrow’s work, working closely with the Woodrow family to build an archive that continues to develop today.

As we prepare this summer’s exhibition, we have returned to the gallery’s own archive. Among the photographs are early exhibitions on West End Avenue in Harrogate, the move to Cold Bath Road in Harrogate, and paintings that have since found homes in collections across the UK and internationally. Together, these photographs document not only the history of the gallery, but also the continuing development of the Joash Woodrow Archive.

Today, the archive remains at the heart of 108 Fine Art, bringing together original paintings, drawings, exhibition records, photography and research that continue to deepen our understanding of Joash Woodrow’s work.

The Beginning of the Archive

108 Fine Art was founded in 1997 by Andrew and Gillian Stewart, with an exhibition programme that introduced a range of contemporary artists to Harrogate. The gallery’s first exhibitions featured Scottish artists and graduates, reflecting a long-standing interest in supporting both established and emerging talent.

A few years later, the gallery began working closely with the Woodrow family to exhibit the work of Joash Woodrow. Living and painting in Leeds, Woodrow drew inspiration from the people, landscapes and everyday life around him, painting intimate portraits and still lifes to Yorkshire allotments and landscapes. Preparing the first exhibition involved much more than selecting paintings for display. Around twenty-five paintings, together with a number of drawings, were carefully catalogued, documented and curated, laying the foundations for what would become the Joash Woodrow Archive.

What began as an exhibition soon became a long-term commitment to researching, preserving and presenting Woodrow’s work.

108 Fine Art at West End Avenue, Harrogate

Building the Archive

As interest in Joash Woodrow’s work grew, so too did the archive itself. Cataloguing, photography, conservation, research and documentation became central to its development, creating a detailed record of Woodrow’s life and artistic practice. Alongside exhibitions and publications, the archive continued to expand, supporting collectors, researchers and institutions interested in his work.

As Gillian Stewart explains:

“Initially it was all on paper, then CDs, and eventually becoming digital. It’s a constant refresh and always being worked on…”

Saul Woodrow, brother of Joash Woodrow, at 108 West End Avenue, Harrogate

A Gallery Designed for the Collection

As the archive developed, so too did the gallery.

Following West End Avenue, 108 Fine Art briefly exhibited from Crown Place before establishing its long-term home at 16 Cold Bath Road, Harrogate. While the gallery has occupied different premises over the years, it has remained firmly rooted in Harrogate, a North Yorkshire spa town with a long-established reputation for independent galleries, antique dealers and private collecting.

The move to Cold Bath Road provided a setting that reflected the gallery’s approach to exhibiting paintings. High ceilings and period Georgian and Victorian architectural features allow visitors to experience the work in surroundings that feel both domestic and yet curated, echoing the way many collectors ultimately live with art in their own homes.

Original Joash Woodrow paintings, drawings, books and limited edition prints continue to be exhibited throughout the gallery, with displays changing throughout the year.

Beyond Harrogate, Joash Woodrow’s work has featured in exhibitions at institutions including the Royal College of Art in London, the Ben Uri Gallery in London and Manchester City Art Gallery. The archive has also supported collectors, students and researchers seeking to deepen their understanding of Woodrow’s work and its place within twentieth-century British art.

Working across portraiture, landscape, still life and abstraction, Woodrow produced an extraordinarily varied body of work. Bringing these different strands together within the archive continues to reveal new connections across his career.

Continuation of the Joash Woodrow archive

More than two decades after the archive first began to take shape, its story continues.

Today, the gallery is led by Gillian Stewart alongside daughters Scarlett and India, continuing the work first established by Andrew and Gillian Stewart. While each generation has brought new skills and perspectives to the gallery, the purpose remains the same: to research, exhibit and care for the Joash Woodrow Archive, ensuring one of the most significant and visionary British artists of the post war period legacy continues.

Whether you have visited the gallery for many years or are discovering Joash Woodrow’s work for the first time, we are proud to share the continuing story of the archive and the artwork that remains at its heart.

India, Gillian, and Scarlett – 108 Fine Art Directors

The Joash Woodrow Archive

As part of Bloom Without Borders, 108 Fine Art hosted a ceramic workshop led by artist Karen Thompson, offering participants the opportunity to explore portraiture through clay.

The session focused on making small busts, with participants working from observation. Subjects included one another, themselves, and people familiar to them.

Working in clay encouraged a direct and intuitive approach. Forms were built by hand, shaped gradually, and adjusted through touch. The process allowed each piece to develop with an emphasis on looking closely and responding to what was in front of them.

Throughout the workshop, participants also looked at portrait imagery for reference, including material drawn from books within the gallery, offering a wider context for thinking about form, structure and expression.

The workshop reflected Karen Thompson’s wider practice, where surface, form and observation come together through a careful and considered approach to making.

It was a pleasure to see a range of responses emerge over the course of the session, with each piece carrying a distinct character shaped by the individual making it.

We would like to thank Karen Thompson for leading the workshop, and all those who took part.

About the Exhibition

The workshop formed part of Bloom Without Borders, a group exhibition bringing together work by Karen Thompson, Anna King, Yukako Sakakura and Daisy Collingridge.

About Karen Thompson

Karen Thompson is a ceramic artist based in North Yorkshire, originally from South Shields.

Alongside her sculptural work, she has developed a series of portrait paintings in acrylic and watercolour, as seen in Bloom Without Borders. Across both disciplines, her practice combines historical and contemporary references, exploring social and political themes through form, surface and expression.

Visit the Gallery

Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Gallery Hours: Open 11am – 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.

108 Fine Art is pleased to present a two-week pop-up of paintings by artist Angel Cook, a young contemporary artist from Yorkshire.

Working primarily in portraiture, Cook’s paintings focus closely on the human face, creating a sense of immediacy and quiet intensity. Through a careful handling of light and shadow, her compositions create an intimate encounter with the subject. Angel Cook’s paintings centres on those closest to her, offering portraits that feel both personal and reflective.

Currently studying BA Fine Art at Newcastle University, this exhibition brings together a new group of portrait paintings shown at the gallery for the first time. It offers an early insight into Cook’s developing practice, as she begins to establish her artistic approach.

At 108 Fine Art, we continue to introduce and support artists at key moments in their careers. Over the years, this has included early exhibitions with painters such as Paul Reid, Yukako Sakakura and Anna King, whose practices have since developed internationally.

Angel Cook’s paintings will be on view for a limited time at the gallery. For those interested in the work, further information and availability can be provided on request.

Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Gallery Hours: Open 11am – 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.

All works will be available for purchase. For the price list and any enquiries, please contact the gallery at exhibitions@108fineart.com.

This April, 108 Fine Art warmly invites you to the opening of No Other Land: Hidden Treasures, a new Morgan van’t Hoff exhibition, featuring recent works by the emerging contemporary painter.

Following his first exhibition with the gallery in 2023 as part of The Andrew Stewart Award, this latest Morgan van’t Hoff exhibition marks his second solo presentation with 108 Fine Art. Morgan graduated Camberwell College of Arts (UAL), and has quickly developed a distinctive visual language. His work is recognised for layered surfaces, found materials and expressive mark-making.

About the Exhibition

In No Other Land: Hidden Treasures, Morgan van’t Hoff continues his exploration of memory, imagination and materiality through richly textured compositions that invite reflection and interpretation. His paintings reveal a balance between spontaneity and excavation, with surfaces built up, scraped back and reworked to create depth and discovery.

This new Morgan van’t Hoff exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to experience the artist’s evolving practice through a collection of works that expand his dreamlike visual world.

Gallery Hours: Open 11am – 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.
Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

All works will be available for purchase. For the price list and any enquiries, please contact the gallery at exhibitions@108fineart.com.

This March, 108 Fine Art warmly invites you to the opening of Bloom Without Borders, an exhibition celebrating four contemporary women artists in honour of Women’s History Month.

Opening on Saturday 7th March 2026, Bloom Without Borders brings together new and recent works by Karen Thompson, Anna King, Yukako Sakakura and Daisy Collingridge. Working across painting, ceramics and textile sculpture, each artist offers a distinct material language. Seen together, their works reflect the breadth, sensitivity and strength of women shaping contemporary art today.

Join us at the gallery in Harrogate from 2–4pm for drinks and conversation as we celebrate the opening of this special exhibition.

Exhibition Details
Opening Date: Saturday 7th March 2026
Closing Date: Saturday 11th April 2026
Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Gallery Hours: Open 11am–5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.

For further information, please contact: exhibitions@108fineart.com

108 Fine Art is pleased to present Fields, Rooms and Faces, a new exhibition of drawings by Joash Woodrow.

Now on view in the gallery, the exhibition brings together drawings that move between landscape, interior and figure. Scenes of public events, performers and everyday encounters sit alongside quieter views of fields, streets and industrial edges, offering a broad and engaging view of Woodrow’s working life and visual curiosity.

Drawing was central to Woodrow’s practice, and this exhibition places the medium firmly at the forefront. The works reflect his sustained attention to the world around him, captured with immediacy and clarity, and reveal how drawing functioned as a way of thinking, recording and responding to experience.

Exhibition Details

Dates: 1st February – 28th February 2026

Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Gallery Hours: Open 11am–5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.

For further information, please contact: exhibitions@108fineart.com

Follow us on Instagram @108fineart for previews and behind-the-scenes content.

We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery.

JOASH WOODROW: ABOUT

We are pleased to share news of a newly published book on the London-born artist David Gommon (1913-1987), with a main text by Philip Vann and an illuminating essay by Karen Taylor (Curator, Towner Eastbourne).

Philip Vann’s writing has long been closely connected with the 108 Fine Art Gallery and with the work of Joash Woodrow. He is the author of the essay, ‘Withdrawal into Reality: the life and art of Joash Woodrow’ in the 2007 book ‘Joash Woodrow. Landscapes’ (with an essay also by Jackie Wullschlager; published by Leeds Metropolitan University in association with 108 Fine Art and the Woodrow family).

In his review in ‘The Art Book’ (Feb 2009), Julian Freeman wrote, ‘It would be easy enough to shoehorn Woodrow into a mould and to transform him into a local figure, as Lowry was, but this – on the strength of Vann and Wullschlager’s open-hearted study – would be to betray him, his intensity, determination and unceasing activity… The real magnetism of the book lies in the power of the painted landscapes reproduced, drawn from Woodrow’s career from the 1950s (until) the decade before his death… As a testimony intended to represent at least a single element of Woodrow’s output, and perhaps, after that, much more, this book should be received with respect by any serious student of painting. I envy its author and publishers, all of whom deserve congratulations for their efforts to support Woodrow’s posthumous reputation, and to bring it before a wider audience.’

A new book has recently been published on the visionary London-born artist David Gommon (1913-1987) – with a main text by Philip Vann and an illuminating essay by Karen Taylor (Curator Towner Eastbourne). Gommon’s art was rooted in seminal experiences he had as a young art student (on Chesil Beach in Dorset) around 1930, and his work thereon is infused by a mystical sense of the wholeness of wider nature. His early paintings (1930s) often feature horses as archetypes of primordial freedom; his postwar pictures focus more on birds as vivid symbols of the spontaneous openness of nature. Gommon’s art is infused by his love and deep knowledge of poetry and music; in the 1930s he was a close friend of the poet/artist David Jones; he also was a friend of the Orkney-born poet Edwin Muir; and late in his life he befriended the great Northumbrian Modernist poet, Basil Bunting (of whom two fine portraits are illustrated in the book).

The book also tells the story of Lucy Wertheim (1883-1971), the pioneering London-based gallerist. Renowned for adventurously showing work by artists such as Christopher Wood (her great friend), Alfred Wallis (whom she visited in St Ives early on) and Frances Hodgkins (as well as Moore and Hepworth and others early in their careers), she gave Gommon his first solo exhibition in 1934; throughout the 30s (until the outbreak of war), she gave him a stipend of £2 a week (and all the art materials he required), which freed him to paint just as he wished.

Further details of this new book can be seen on the publisher Sansom & Company’s website: https://sansomandcompany.co.uk/product/david-gommon/

JOASH WOODROW: ABOUT

This November, 108 Fine Art warmly invites you to the opening of Celebration, an exhibition honouring the life and work of Joash Woodrow.

Opening on Saturday 22nd November 2025, Celebration brings together rarely seen paintings and drawings from the Joash Woodrow Archive. The exhibition offers a glimpse into Woodrow’s enduring fascination with people – in solitude, in company, and in the quiet rhythm of daily life.

Join us at the gallery in Harrogate from 2–4pm for mulled wine and conversation as we welcome the season with this special collection of works

Exhibition Details
Opening Date: Saturday 22nd November 2025
Closing Date: Saturday 7th February 2026
Location: 108 Fine Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Gallery Hours: Open 11am–5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Walk-ins welcome or by appointment.

For further information, please contact: exhibitions@108fineart.com

JOASH WOODROW: ABOUT

The Sensation of Image – New Exhibition at 108 Fine Art, Harrogate

We are delighted to present The Sensation of Image, an exhibition bringing together the work of painter and printmaker Geoff Morten (1947–2009) and ceramicist Jenny Morten. Opening with a private view on Saturday 13th September 2025, the exhibition will run until Saturday 1st November 2025.

Exploring Painting, Printmaking, and Porcelain

Geoff and Jenny Morten shared over fifty years of life and art. Geoff’s practice combined drawing, painting, and printmaking, reflecting his continual exploration of image, memory, and perception. Jenny’s work focuses on hand-built and thrown porcelain, with large sculptural pieces and smaller functional forms that balance aesthetic depth with practicality, exploring time, geology, and human presence.

This exhibition marks the first time their work has been shown together at 108 Fine Art, offering an insight into the distinct but complementary approaches of two artists whose lives and practices were closely intertwined.

Available Works

A selection of paintings, prints, and ceramics from the exhibition will be available to purchase. Please contact us for any enquiries.

Visit Us in Harrogate

The Sensation of Image will be open from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am–5pm, at 108 Fine Art, Harrogate. Private viewings are also available by appointment.

For more information or to schedule a private viewing, please contact us at exhibitions@108fineart.com or call 01423 709108.

Follow us on social media @108fineart for previews and behind-the-scenes content.

We look forward to welcoming you to The Sensation of Image.