Abject Gallery

Abject Gallery occupies part of the restored Athenaeum building on Fawcett Street in Sunniside, built in 1841 for the city's former Literary and Philosophical Society. The gallery is run by Breeze Creatives, led by co-director Zoe Breeze, in the same building as the Pilgrim Studios artist workspaces. Its programme leans towards contemporary work rather than local history retrospectives, with past exhibitions bringing in artists from as far afield as Turkey, Canada, Iceland and China alongside North East makers. The space doubles as a venue for talks and open evenings tied to the wider Sunniside creative quarter, and keeps modest public hours, Tuesday to Saturday, midday to four o'clock. The building itself, once a meeting hall for engineers, scientists and readers, now serves a similar function for the city's contemporary artists.