Finding Audrey Amiss

Elena Carter is at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art on Thursday 12 November, 6pm to 7:30pm, for a talk on the archive of Audrey Amiss. It's part of the exhibition Audrey Amiss: Kitchen Sink Realism, which runs from 31 October 2026 to 17 January 2027 at the gallery's new home in Culture House.

Amiss was born in Sunderland but spent most of her life in London working as a civil servant. She was recognised as a promising artist, but mental health problems led her to abandon her studies at the Royal Academy School of Art, and painting remained her private passion. She left behind a striking visual diary of hundreds of sketches, paintings, scrapbooks and diaries, which her family donated to the Wellcome Collection.

Carter is an archivist at the Wellcome Collection and spent over a year cataloguing the archive. She also acted as a consultant on Typist Artist Pirate King, the film drama about Amiss's life. Her talk gives a look at the process of caring for the collection and how it's brought together. The exhibition is open to view alongside it, so you can see the work and then hear about what happened behind the scenes.

Tickets are £5, and the talk is for ages 16 and over. It runs from 6pm to 7:30pm on Thursday 12 November at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Culture House.