Coming into Contact

Exhibition Preview: Wednesday 21 January 2026, 5:00pm-7:00pm

Location: Leeds Arts University, Vernon Street, Leeds LS2 8PH

Click here to book your place at the preview

This exhibition is available to view from 10:00am - 4:00pm Monday to Friday by appointment only for external visitors. Please email curatorial@leeds-art.ac.uk to make an appointment. Staff and students are not required to make an appointment.

Love with another can be difficult to express. Where words can feel limited, abstract forms offer a way to express the inexpressible. In 'Coming into Contact' Rose Porritt presents a series of work focusing on the tenderness and care that shape her relationships and which she then channels into her sculptural and two-dimensional works. Porritt revisits work made during her time as a Fine Art student at Leeds Arts University, showing these works alongside newer pieces made in the uncertain period after graduating.

Along with uncertainty, graduating brings new chapters–times of both losing and gaining connections. By looking back, Porritt is able to remind herself of the fundamentals of love and connection in her life.

Through the exploration of texture, colour and shape, Porritt seeks to create and then resolve tensions by finding an overall visual balance in her work. Whether two or three- dimensional, each work has a highly tactile quality, speaking to the significance of physical contact with loved ones and the ways which these connections may alter throughout life.

With materials at the core of her practice, Porritt ensures each work has an inherent beauty and grounding. She honours her materials and allows their unique properties to speak for themselves. Materials like ash and copper embody a solidity that reminds us of a connection’s grounding and reassuring nature. This can take us beyond conscious thought towards feelings of love and physical connection, reminding us how fundamental love and touch are to us as human beings.

By expressing tension, imperfection, beauty and solidity in her works, she invites the viewer to reflect on how they view the connections in their lives and how they may have changed throughout their lifetime.

Rose Porritt is a sculptor and printmaker based in Halifax, West Yorkshire. She draws inspiration from her relationships and from the distinct character of the West Yorkshire natural landscape, tracing the rhythms and shapes that emerge from both. Having recently completed her BA in Fine Art at Leeds Arts University, she has returned home and is navigating life as a graduate while establishing her art practice within a new environment. Recent exhibitions include Essence of the Primal (Leeds Arts University, 2025), As We See it (Leeds Arts University, 2025), Free Range (Truman Brewery, 2025), Wayzgoose (Assembly House, 2024), Let Us See You (Aire Place Studios, 2024), 49 Good Artists (East Street Arts, 2024).