The Interim gallery will host window designer and artist Will Collieson in its next exhibition.

The show ?Recent Works by William Collieson? opens tomorrow and it promises to be a mixture of work.

Mr. Collieson is a seasoned and popular artist on the local scene and the general public have been exposed to his work from his long career, as the window designer of Smith?s and Sons department store.

He will also be the first artist to display work in the sculpture garden developed adjacent to the gallery.

Mr. Collieson was unable to recall the last time he did a solo exhibition, so this will be a rare treat for art lovers.

He describes his recent mixed media works as three-dimensional assemblages and relief collage.

?They explore the juxtaposition of manufactured and organic elements leaving the interpretation open to the viewer,? he said.

?It is a constant process. It is an interpretative and sometimes cynical take on today?s social and political issues.

?In this exhibition I have reduced the pieces to their bare bones by using less material than I have in the past. This description is somewhat ironic, as I have used bones as a medium in a number of the pieces.?

Mr. Collieson said none of his pieces were paintings.

?The majority of the work is in the form of installations,? he said. ?Although painting is involved in some of the pieces, the pieces are not ?paintings? in the traditional sense.?

He said it was hard to choose a favourite piece in this collection, but he said: ?If I had to choose one I would pick the installation entitled Getting Blood from a Stone.?

Mr. Collieson, who works from his York Street Gallery, in St George?s, has been an artist for about 40 years and was formally trained at Liverpool Art School.

?Art is something that I do all the time, as art is how I earn a living,? he said.