A POPULAR art gallery is creating a guest exhibition space to allow North-East artists to showcase their work.

Bondgate Gallery, in Bishop Auckland, has 11 artists lined up – one for each month this year from February.

An open evening will take place tomorrow (Friday, January 18) evening from 5pm until 8pm. This will be followed by an introductory exhibition from Saturday, January 19 until Saturday, January 26, in which each artist will display about four pieces of their art work.

Artists taking part include Sandra Mark, who will display her work in February, Shelagh Brown, Neil Bage Collette Lau (CORR), Jen Wyse and Paul Thompson.

Lynn Thompson, who runs Bondgate Gallery, said: “I wanted to support North-East artists and this is about giving them their first chance.

“Each artist will get a space in the gallery to display their work for a month.

“The introductory week will allow people to see what will be on offer throughout the year. If they see something they like then hopefully it will encourage them to check out more the artist’s work.”