Tomlinson, K., Covell, D., Benjamin, B., Theunissen, E., Cooney, S., Dalton, G., Bird, K., Durrani, J., Sowerby, C., Gatenby, P., Hume, N., 2026.

Lineage: Painting from the Tees Valley

Painting has a long and distinctive history in the Tees Valley, shaped not only by individual artists but by generations of painters teaching, mentoring, challenging and supporting one another.

Lineage brings that history into the present, spanning generations and radically different approaches. The exhibition moves from abstraction and the physical possibilities of paint to landscape, memory, identity, class, digital culture and everyday life. Together, the works reveal a painting culture that has continually evolved while retaining deep connections to place.