Not everybody from South Wales realises what an extraordinary place it is. Perhaps you need to go away from it and come back again to find out. Its inheritance of industry in isolated, upland valleys has given it an utterly distinctive landscape and society. There are places somewhat like it in coalfields throughout the world - in Pennsylvania, Poland, northern France - but in a sense they all follow it. Wales was the original. Its ironworks towns and coalfield valleys set lasting patterns, and it was the first nation where more people worked in industry than agriculture.

Artists have been responding to this unique place ever since it started to be made. During the Industrial Revolution, Turner sketched the ironworks of Merthyr Tydfil, Julius Caesar Ibbetson recorded the mines of Swansea, and many other painters on the tour of Wales were astonished by what they found. After the initial excitement, though, artists were less engaged. The daily life of a working population and the landscapes of industrial despoliation, now made familiar, could not compete with mythic or religious subjects, bucolic scenes and fashionable still-life. It was only after the social upheaval of the First World War that artists once again began to make art from the Valleys.

The exhibition is intended as a celebration of ten contemporary artists represented by Attic Gallery, who have taken the South Wales Valleys and its communities as their subject matter. It is being held during the year marking the 20th anniversary of the miners' strike, the failure of which was such a major blow to the communities of the South Wales Valleys. However, this was only one of a series of changes that have pushed Wales into becoming the world's first post-industrial nation.

A number of the artists in the exhibition have been painting this subject since the 1950's and have witnessed many of these changes. Certain works in the exhibition date back many years, some are new but prepared from drawings made much earlier, while the remainder are contemporaneous. Some are recording an aspect of South Wales that has virtually disappeared, while others explore the effects of these changes on the communities. All are dealing with an era which will no doubt be studied by future generations.

There will be over eighty paintings for sale in the exhibition. The participating artists are Ceri Barclay, David Carpanini, George Chapman, John Cooper, Valerie Ganz, Chris Griffin, Nick Holly, George Little, Richard Oliver, Will Roberts.

A catalogue of this exhibition has been published by Attic Gallery. This is intended to be a permanent record of the exhibition to be used for reference after the exhibition has ended. This full colour catalogue has been professionally designed and is just under A4 in size. It has 24 pages plus a heavy cover. It opens with a 1300 word essay by art critic Dr Peter Wakelin. Each artist is given two pages; the first gives the artist's career, followed by a statement from the artist. The opposite page has a single, large full colour image of one of their paintings, ie there are ten colour plates in total.

To order the catalogue, please send a cheque for £3.95, including p&p made payable to 'Attic Gallery' to:

Attic Gallery
14 Cambrian Place
Old Maritime Quarter
Swansea
SA1 1RG