AN art gallery will be making much ado about nothing when a new exhibition opens next month.

"Nothing" is the title of the new show at Sunderland's Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art where influential modern artists will interpret the concept.

The works include a bin liner placed in the corner of the gallery and a crumpled up canvas.

Earlier this week, the Custard Factory gallery in Birmingham hit the headlines after staging a show featuring imaginary works.

Visitors were presented with written descriptions of the work of art and a gaping hole where the exhibit is supposed to be. The visitor was asked to imagine what the work of art would look like.

A spokesman for the Sunderland gallery said it was an "uncanny coincidence" that the Birmingham exhibition was also about nothing.

She said: "Ours is entirely different. For a start we are actually going to show real life things."

More than 36 international art works from the 1960s to the present day will be shown at Sunderland.

The exhibition opens at the gallery in Fawcett Street on April 12 and closes on June 3