Bradford: Bill Bailey’s Extraordinary Portraits exhibition set to open

An exhibition of portraits created as a part of a TV series hosted by comedian Bill Bailey is set to open this week.

Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey opens to the public in Bradford on Thursday at Loading Bay – a former warehouse which has been converted into a pop-up venue for Bradford’s UK City of Culture year.

The free exhibition will feature portraits made on the fourth series of the BBC’s Extraordinary Portraits, which sees artists paint, sculpt or photograph people with powerful personal stories.

Bailey, who attended a preview event for the exhibition on Tuesday, said the series “democratises the whole notion of portraiture”.

“Lots of portraits, if you look back through history, are all of rather serious looking blokes sitting on a horse,” he said.

“[The exhibition] is very far from that and I think that’s wonderful.”

The exhibition features a painting by ex-professional goalkeeper turned painter David James of footballer Gill Sayell, who James called a “trailblazer” for women’s football.

“I’ve been an artist for many many years, but I never thought I’d be asked to do this,” James said.

“I’ve just met Gill again today and she said, ‘I’ve seen more stuff in the painting that I didn’t see the first time around’, which is what I try to do in my artwork.”

The former England international continued: “It’s not always self-explanatory, you have to have a little bit of a delve in so you can find out what the stories mean.”

Bailey said while he had long been interested in visual art, he recently discovered a passion for sketching wildlife.

“I love to paint and draw birds and bees and bugs, all that kind of thing, the stuff I grew up with.

“You will all be coming to an exhibition of mine very soon,” he joked.