A selection of paintings and sculpture exploring two characters from West Riding folklore.

Solo exhibition by Dale Holmes in the main gallery

Opening Night : Fri 1st August | 6pm – 9pm | South Square
Running : Fri 1st Aug – Sun 5th October

In West Riding folklore, Gytrash is a spectral dog that haunts liminal spaces; roads
where town becomes moor, ginnels between streets, thresholds of woods. Gytrash
appears in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre and was a lifelong, unwanted
companion to her troubled brother Branwell.

Beenderman is said to stalk the hills and drystone walls of the moor between
Thornton and Haworth. Skeletal and ancient, he is always looking to take the
hapless and the unprepared.

From 1 August, South Square will be home to these two unlikely friends.
Spilling out from our Main Gallery into our outside spaces, this exciting exhibition
gives us a glimpse into the encounters of these folklore characters as they navigate
the modern world – and maybe become the next Asterix and Obelisk, Tintin and
Snowy, or even Turner and Hooch… 

About the artist

Dale Holmes’ painting practice is internationally recognised for its focus on
materiality, narrative strategies and logics of display that critique and embody modes
of audience attention. The performance of cultural heritage, Mediaeval imaginaries,
folklore and narrative traditions, speculative philosophy, Black Metal culture, and
clubs and guilds are facets of Dale Holmes’ overarching inquiry into making, class,
and communality.  

Recent exhibition and performances include: Chapter, Cardiff and Serf, Leeds (both
2025); Egg, Todmorden and Steam Works, London (both 2024); Gloam, Sheffield
(2023); Huddersfield Art Gallery and Temporary Contemporary, Huddersfield, and
Kunstverein Nürnberg, Germany (all 2022); Editions Gallery, Bochum, Germany
(2021); Galerie Sabine Knust, Munich, Germany and Xian Academy of Fine Art,
China (2019). Non-conventional exhibition sites and surfaces have included a
bicycle, sportswear, chain link fences around a tennis court, and stage backdrops for
medieval drone band Slugmilk.