This exhibition is the first in a series presented by MGA that profiles and explores the work of William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize alumni.

Valerie Sparks won the Bowness Photography Prize in 2016 for her work ‘Prospero's Island – North East’ from the series Prospero's Island (2016). Sparks creates magnificently beautiful large-scale works that entice the viewer with perfectly impossible landscapes. Each scene is meticulously constructed using her photographs of different landscapes, flora, fauna and taxidermied animals from museum collections. These composite images, which could never exist in nature, draw attention to concerns over the destruction of landscape, post-colonialism and globalisation.

This exhibition draws together key works, charting Sparks's significant practice and hinting at the exciting, immersive and innovative installations that will come next.

Curator: Anouska Phizacklea