[uz], [uz], [uz]: Artists from Working-Class Backgrounds

Challenge your expectations in this landmark group exhibition.

‘[uz], [uz], [uz]’ is a celebration of the breadth and vitality of work by artists from working-class backgrounds. It features the work of over thirty modern and contemporary artists who were born in or have significant connections to Yorkshire. Their works range in medium, including painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, installation and film.  

The exhibition is also a challenge to class-related prejudices and stereotypes. Whilst privileging working-class voices, ‘[uz], [uz], [uz]’ aims not to reduce artists’ practice to their class. Instead, we recognise and celebrate the complexity of their realities and experiences.  

While some address working-class issues and identity, others do not engage with class in their work. Some deal with form and materiality, landscape, the bodily, or the everyday. Others explore issues around inequality, memory, trauma or tradition. Importantly, the exhibition brings to the fore intersectional experiences. These include Black, Queer, feminist and disabled perspectives.   

The exhibition also includes selected works from the University Art Collection, many of which are being shown for the first time. Alongside the exhibition, the University has commissioned a new installation for our collection by Leeds-based artist Simeon Barclay (b. 1975).  

'[uz], [uz], [uz]' borrows its title from a verse in the poem ‘Them & [uz]’ by Leeds-born poet Tony Harrison (1937 – 2025). This poem is a powerful and provocative commentary on class division and cultural exclusion. The Tony Harrison Archive is held within Cultural Collections & Galleries. 

List of Artists: 

Wendy Abbott 

Terry Atkinson 

Simeon Barclay 

David Blackburn 

Jim Brook 

Francis Butterfield 

Tony Carter 

Grace Clifford 

Kedisha Coakley 

Joanne Coates 

Dennis Creffield 

Charlotte Saint Cullen 

Charlotte Dawson 

George Storm Fletcher 

Terry Frost 

Thomas Griffiths 

Will Hughes 

Sam Hutchinson 

Mia Jones 

Arthur Kitching 

Mary Lord 

Jill McKnight 

Sam Metz 

Henry Moore 

Philip Naviasky 

Joseph Pighills 

Conor Rogers 

Lydia Shearsmith 

Connor Shields 

Beth Smith 

Bethany Stead 

Norman Stevens 

Maud Sulter 

Harry Thubron 

Lucy Wright 

Ajamu X 

Image credit: Beth Smith, Comfort Food (detail), 1990, pastel on paper. © Beth Smith. Cultural Collections & Galleries, University of Leeds Libraries, Art Collection.