Ones To Watch art exhibition is on at Sunny Bank Mills

Ones To Watch, is worth a visit before it closes in three weeks’ time. The event, at Sunny Bank Mills Art Gallery in Farsley, celebrates 36 talented emerging artists and makers who are based in, or originally from, Yorkshire.

The exhibition spans painting, sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography, ceramics, design and more, with much of the work available to purchase. A further 14 artists are represented in the Ones to Watch Zine Library.

For new and seasoned collectors alike, the exhibition offers an accessible entry point into collecting original art, with prints and limited editions available at affordable prices. Buying from the show directly supports artists at a pivotal stage in their careers.

Says Sunny Banks Mills’ arts director Anna Turzynski: “This is our 13th year and whilst it may be an unlucky number for some, it has been an exceptional year for the exhibition. We are delivering an even broader programme of events alongside it, including our Performance Night, Overtime Art Club and our first-ever Creative Skills Day.

Islands by Cassie Oliphant

She continues: “My intention is for this annual exhibition to be an act of encouragement and support for artists at a time when it can feel as though the world is telling them not to pursue this path. I want to thank every artist who applied this year for continuing to make, experiment and express themselves despite the challenges. Please keep going.

“This exhibition includes self-taught artists, practitioners returning to a new phase of their work, and those who have applied multiple times. There is so much joy, good humour and raw talent in this show. Please visit before it closes, and don’t forget to vote for your favourite piece to help us decide the winner of The People’s Choice Award.”

Two of the artists taking part in Ones To Watch are Cassy Oliphant and Pooja Mistry.

Works by Pooja Mistry. Picture Harry Meadley

Cassy is a Leeds-based community artist based at Sunny Bank Mills, whose practice moves between painting, textiles, and photographic processes including cyanotype. She uses the symbolic language of animals in myth and folklore as recurring figures through which to explore transformation, migration, and belonging.

Pooja is a third-year illustration student at Leeds Arts University whose practice explores the value of imperfection, playfulness and instinctive mark making. Working across drawing, printmaking and sketchbook-based experimentation, she creates expressive, ‘wonky’ animal forms that sit somewhere between observation, imagination and joyful distortion.

Alongside the main exhibition is a programme including a Performance Night by Ones To Watch artists on Saturday March 7, Over Time Art Club workshops and a Creative Skills Day on March 25.

*Ones To Watch is in the Gallery, Sandsgate Building, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, LS28 5UJ, Tuesday-Sunday 10am-4pm until March 29. Entry is free.

*sunnybankmills.co.uk/arts/gallery/ones-to-watch-2026/