Acclaimed British artist Liz West brings a mesmerizing exhibition to Harrogate’s Mercer Art Gallery, inviting audiences to experience a dazzling interplay of light, space and reflection.
The exhibition is called H.A.P.P.Y as a counterbalance to Liz’s personal experience of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), a condition linked to the shorter and darker days of Autumn and Winter. She experiments with colour and light to create environments that inspire joy and curiosity, and it’s fitting that this exhibition runs through the Spring and Summer, the time when Liz is at her happiest due to increased daylight and warmer weather.
Liz West’s work, whether intimate or monumental in scale, creates playful experiences and environments that heighten our senses and positively affect how we feel. She is interested in our deep human connection to colour and light, and how they can evoke physical, psychological, and emotional responses in us.
At the heart of this exhibition is Our Colour Reflection, an immersive artwork, composed of 765 multi-coloured mirrored discs arranged across the floor, which transforms its environment into a vibrant spectacle of shifting colour and luminosity.
The installation harnesses natural and artificial light to create an ever-changing landscape of reflections. The mirrors bounce colour onto walls, ceilings, and viewers themselves, encouraging interaction and personal interpretation. As visitors move through the space, their perspectives shift, revealing new combinations of colour and light in an absorbing sensory encounter.
Visitors will experience the 1806 Spa Promenade Room that houses the Mercer Gallery literally in a whole new light. Exhibition screens and window blinds have been removed to allow natural light to flood the space.
West said:
It is a great pleasure to be exhibiting my work at The Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate. I have visited this beautiful spa town many times over the years with whilst growing up in Yorkshire, with great interest. With the window coverings in the elegant Spa Promenade Room being removed for the first time in decades, the interplay of colour and light within the space will be kaleidoscopic and dynamic.
In a unique collaboration, West’s work has inspired the Leeds-based electronic producer, musician and artist Cherry Seraph (the alias of Sophie Russell) to create a new sound piece which will play continuously in the gallery, commissioned with the support of the Friends of the Mercer Gallery.
Russell said:
Liz West’s work lends itself perfectly to having a soundtrack, primarily because of the palpable effect that colour has on our emotions. There is a meaningful, and intimate interplay between the relationships of colour frequencies and sound; they contain a shared relationship to translate moods and more. My piece seeks to capture the essence of Liz’s work and what it is to feel, honing in on what ‘happiness’ is.
In addition, the exhibition brings together for the first time West’s works on paper to showcase a collection of three-dimensional ‘concertina’ pieces and experimental drawings that reveal her instinctive and intellectual engagement with the emotive qualities of colour. The artist has also selected artworks and artefacts from Harrogate’ museum collections to reflect upon our primal responses to colour and light.
Curator Karen Southworth said:
Liz’s work encourages us to become aware of our surroundings in new ways.
It leads us to tune into our own emotional responses, memories and experiences – each person will have an individual and very personal reaction. We’re thrilled to host Liz West’s work at the Mercer, it’s a major artistic event for North Yorkshire.
Liz West has exhibited internationally, with works featured in galleries, museums, and public spaces worldwide; her most recent projects have taken place at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, British Council New Delhi, and Trapholt Museum of Modern Art and Design in Denmark.
H.A.P.P.Y. will be on display at the Mercer Art Gallery from April 13th to October 5th 2025.
