Constructive: Katarzyna Coleman & Bridget Heriz

In the Main Gallery --

Quietly observed, intensely felt.

This is an exhibition of notable firsts. In the inaugural year of the South Quay Gallery, Constructive is the first exhibition that Katarzyna Coleman and Bridget Heriz have made together. That is remarkable, given that the artists have lived in Great Yarmouth and been friends for over two decades. Each artist individually renowned, they are also key members of a close-knit community of artists that includes John Kiki, Emrys Parry and, until recently, Bruer Tidman. Tidman died in 2024 and the loss of him is still profoundly felt. This set of relationships is worth mentioning as it foregrounds the significance of Coleman and Heriz exhibiting together now, in a context which includes recent seismic events that are personal, local and global.

Visiting Coleman’s studio in June, a phrase from our conversation lingers in my mind: Coleman noted that her paintings may look ordered and calm but that’s not how she feels about them, she said that they are seething. In the work of both artists, clarity of line and composition is not an expression of tranquillity or contentment. Coleman’s images, in their muted colour and precise perspective, are brimming with intention, meaning and experience. Both artists make work that is absolutely of Great Yarmouth, keenly attuned to their immediate physical and social environment. In their distillation of this place, they make work with far reaching relevance that might speak equally of other times and places.

Coleman and Heriz could be described as purists; their careers are characterised by a fidelity to their subjects and an enduring fascination with the ‘inside-outness’ of structures. Each artist’s work is instantly recognisable and yet there is much in common, allowing these works to be comfortable in each other’s company. With a shared element of emotional restraint, their works have a quality of silence that evokes what remains unsaid.

Now for the first time and with this exhibition together, their works invite us to spend time, look, and remain attentive to what might be understood from close observation.

Dr Amanda Geitner, July 2026