Left: 'Bread and Keys,' Richard Billingham, courtesy of the Anthony Reynolds Gallery.
The full range of the modern urban experience is dealt with in a new exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery until 30 August.
Inspired in part by Wolverhampton's recently awarded city status, Tales of the City explores aspects of urban life through works from the gallery's contemporary collection.
Right: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Tom Phillips.
Caroline Smallwood, Assistant Curator at Wolverhampton Art Gallery said, "The exhibition draws on such a diverse range of themes, it really shows off the variety and quality of our extensive contemporary collection."
Left: Newly Decorated Doors by David Hepher, courtesy of the Flowers East Gallery.
With an emphasis on the gritty, sometimes seedier side of life in the city, this is an exhibition that pulls no punches and features some of the best of our contemporary artists in the mediums of print, photography and painting.
Artworks featured range from Chris Plowman's futuristic cityscapes to David Hepher's depictions of suburbia and Paul O'Donell's bleak photographs of his squat. It's an eclectic range that allows subjects such as the city environment, future regeneration and homelessness to be tackled on a local, national and international scale.
Right: 'Fiction City' by Chris Plowman.
The exhibition is also the first airing for some impressive new acquisitions of work by artists such as Richard Billingham and Rut Blees Luxembourg.
Billingham, who grew up in the midlands, seems particularly at home. His gritty and unsettling depiction of his own family's life runs the range of emotions from abject dejection to flurries of tenderness.
Luxembourg occupies a less realistic world - a photographic twilight zone where the night time urban environment is both alluring and dangerous.
Both artists are perfect indicators of a bold and challenging exhibition in an exciting and vibrant gallery.
