A band T-shirt can be an introduction, a declaration of allegiance or a reminder of who you were when you bought it. A sketch made at a gig might preserve something a photograph misses: the movement, the light, the feeling of standing in the crowd.
At Art of Protest Gallery in York, three Northern artists are exploring what happens when music crosses into another form.
Art You Can Hear brings together Manchester-based painter Peter Davis, Newcastle street artist Mul and York artist Sam Joesbury. Their work approaches the question from different directions, but each is interested in the way music attaches itself to people and places.
For Joesbury, the starting point is the gig itself. A fine art graduate of Lancaster University, he draws bands while they perform, working quickly from within the audience as light and bodies move around him. The exhibition includes drawings made at Leeds Festival, alongside a sketch he's developed into a painting. It's an attempt to hold on to the experience of being there, rather than simply record who was on stage.
Mul, also known as Alex Mulholland, takes music into the streets. His large-scale murals and graphic work often draw on lyrics, movement and the energy of live culture; his “Running Heart” character has become a recurring part of his visual language. For this exhibition, he is showing lyric-based originals and new pieces made with found objects, including work being shown publicly for the first time.
Davis approaches contemporary life through portraits and urban landscapes. His paintings have addressed subjects including mental health, race, ageing and displacement. Six new original works will appear in the York show, alongside three limited-edition prints embellished with silver leaf. He has also designed three T-shirts for its launch, which falls on Band T-Shirt Day.
That choice feels particularly apt. We tend to talk about music as something we hear, but much of its cultural life is visible: in the clothes people keep, the images on bedroom walls, the artwork that gives a record its identity, or the marks an artist makes while a band plays. These objects can carry a sense of belonging long after the performance ends.
The three artists work on very different scales - from a rapid sketch in a crowd to a public mural - and that range gives the exhibition its interest. Music can be intimate and collective at once. A song belongs to the person who remembers hearing it at a particular moment, but it can also become part of how a neighbourhood, a city or a generation recognises itself.
Art You Can Hear runs at Art of Protest Gallery, Walmgate, York, from 18 September to 7 October 2026.
Its official launch is on Friday 18 September, coinciding with Band T-Shirt Day.
Header image: Peter Davis - Nirvana, painting work in progress
