On the upper floor in one of the most remarkable buildings in Leeds, the impressive work of sculptors can be found.

Six guest artists – John Burks, Mark Butler, Jo Woffinden, Kai Larmour-Jones, Jamie Frost, Benjamin Hannavy Cousen - are displaying their work at The Sculpture Gallery in the city centre building after having their pieces invidually exhibited throughout the year.

The end of year exhibition is officially on until the end of December, but the artists are able to keep their work up during January too.

It includes a piece by Holmbridge-based artist Jamie Frost called ‘Sound of Music’. It is a sculpture known as a ‘relief’ – where parts of the piece protrude from a supporting background – of a hand pulling a thread, which is based on one of Frost’s previous drawings from many years ago.

Jamie Frost with his work 'Sound of Music', a relief made in ash and brass on show at the Sculpture Gallery in the Corn Exchange in Leeds. Picture by Tony Johnson.

The thread is made of brass and the rest is wood – a piece of sliced ash log repurposed from its previous use in work by artist Paloma Varga Weisz, also displayed in Leeds.

Speaking about what inspires his work more generally, Frost says: “Since I've worked with a figure - which has been 15 years now, I’d say - I’ve felt compelled to keep going back and looking at the figure and working with the lovely nuances you get in terms of facial expressions and hands just in pose. It seems like there's just an infinitely deep well of inspiration there that is very easy to kind of make a connection to other people – it's a very direct way of communicating with people because we all have empathy with the subject.”

As well work by guest artists, the gallery showcases the work of six core local artists – Pete Donnelly, Penny Pendle Hayes, David Iredale, Mandy Long, Johnny Sunter and Steve Williams.

Iredale, a former engineer who retired in December 2019 to take up sculpting full-time, wanted to put an exhibition on post-lockdown so organised a pop-up sculpture showcase downstairs in the Corn Exchange.

Boys in zinc by Benjamin Couze. Picture by Tony Johnson.

The idea of a permanent gallery in the venue grew from there, and it opened in April this year on the upper floor.

The Corn Exchange itself was built between 1861-3 to the designs of Hull’s Cuthbert Brodrick, the man also behind Leeds Town Hall.

Impressive works at The Sculpture Gallery in Leeds Corn Exchange