It’s the first exhibition to be shown at the new home of Sunderland’s first contemporary art gallery.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the response we’ve had from people, both to the new gallery space and the first exhibition we have here. We’ve welcomed over 10,000 people in the first weekend, which surpassed what we expected,” says the curator of Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA) as it settles into its new home.

The NGCA has a new permanent home in Culture House | Sunderland Echo

placeholder image — The NGCA has a new permanent home in Culture House | Sunderland Echo

Formerly based at the now closed National Glass Centre, NGCA has been relocated to Culture House with a more prominent gallery space, which will host world class contemporary art on Wearside.

The first exhibition is a very fitting one and shines a light on a prolific Sunderland artist whose work was only truly appreciated after her death.

Audrey Amiss: Kitchen Sink Realism, developed in partnership with Wellcome Collection, brings together previously unseen paintings, drawings, and archival material from the remarkable archive of the Fulwell-born artist and officially opened on September 12, along with the Culture House building.

Audrey photographed in Sunderland in the 1950s | Sunderland Echo

Born in Sunderland in 1933, Audrey studied at Sunderland College of Art, now part of the University of Sunderland's School of Media and Creative Industries, before receiving a prestigious scholarship to study painting at the Royal Academy in London.

But her artistic studies were never completed due to mental illness, which was less well understood in the 1950s.

Audrey’s remarkable story was brought to the fore in 2022 film Typist Artist Pirate King, named after what Audrey put as her occupation in her passport.

Roker painted by Audrey in the 1950s in the area that now houses Grannie Annie's and Elephant Rock | Sunderland Echo

“Achieving a prestigious scholarship to study at the Royal Academy was a huge achievement for a woman coming from a working class background in the North East at the time,” explained Jon Weston, curator at NGCA.

“This is the first time her artwork has been exhibited largely. Throughout her life, she always strove to have exhibitions of her work and she did have her artwork shown in a lot of open call exhibitions in London, but this is the first time there’s been a solo show focusing on Audrey Amiss’ work in her home town of Sunderland and it’s brilliant to bring it here for people of Sunderland to see it for the first time.”

The gallery has been visited by 10,000 people in its first week alone | Sunderland Echo

Upon her death in a Clapham maisonette in 2013, Audrey left behind a vast collection of work, 50,000 sketches in her sketchbooks alone.

The works on display feature a mixture of landscapes of her home city like Roker, Seaburn and Mowbray Park during the 1950s, scenes from Audrey’s everyday life in London, the spaces around her and her sketches, including cut outs from when she featured in the Sunderland Echo after achieving her scholarship.

The strong visitor numbers are a flying start for the NGCA, which is one of the oldest galleries in the city, with a history stretching back more than 50 years.

For many decades, until the opening of The Baltic, NGCA was the North East’s largest gallery dedicated to contemporary art.

It’s had a number of homes in its time, and was based at the City Library in Fawcett Street for many years before relocating to National Glass Centre in 2018 when the main library closed.

Now, with the City Library one of many cultural offerings at Culture House, NGCA has been reunited with the library and is one of three dedicated gallery spaces at the multi-million pound new venue.

Audrey was a keen collector of all manner of things. Pictured here are cuttings from the Sunderland Echo which featured her artistic success | Sunderland Echo

Kevin Petrie, Professor of Creative Practice, School of Media and Creative Industries at the University of Sunderland, who own the gallery, said: "It's fantastic to be able to showcase the work of this important artist in our new gallery space.

“NGCA gives our creative students the chance to work alongside the exhibition curator, and in many cases artists themselves, to learn first-hand about careers and professional practice in the arts.

“We're planning a range of exhibitions of professional artists, academic creative work and student projects for our new gallery space, demonstrating all the ways in which creativity can challenge, inspire, and delight.”

Audrey Amiss: Kitchen Sink Realism is available to view at Culture House daily from 10am to 6pm until Sunday, January 17. Free entry.

A concurrent exhibition, Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions, is on display at Wellcome Collection in London until 7 February 2027.