ADZE Gallery directors David Durham and Dee Bray Calvert have returned to York from their Cornish travels, laden with artefacts by St Ives artists. These now stand alongside northern works in Coast: North By South-West, a selling exhibition of contemporary paintings, ceramics and sculpture influenced by coastal landscapes and seascapes.

The directors are particularly pleased to have signed up Ralph Freeman for the autumn show. "This is a major coup for Adze," says David. "Our exhibition is the first time he has exhibited in York and only the second time he has done so in the North during his 37 years as an artist.

Freeman's large canvases and smaller, mixed-media collages are created in his St Ives studio, looking out across Porthmeor Bay. In 1997-98 he held a solo show at the Tate St Ives and earlier this year, he did likewise at the Freud Museum, London.

In a second Cornish coup, Adze is giving Margo Maeckelberghe her York debut and her first northern showcase since a Durham University exhibition in 1973. On view are "gestural paintings" by Cornish-born Margo, whose art is inspired by the village where she lives and works, West Penwith.

Vincent Wilson completes the trinity of York debut-makers with a Cornish home address, in his case exhibiting mixed-media collages. "Vincent has enjoyed much success in the 45 years since he was represented in Young Artists from the North of England at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool in 1955, and he's had many solo shows in St Ives, London, Bath, Dublin and elsewhere, but he rarely exhibits his paintings and etchings in the North," says David.

Janet R Moodie straddles south-western and northern camps: having lived in Cornwall and exhibited at the Tate St Ives, she is based now near Robin Hood's Bay. "Janet is an Adze Gallery permanent exhibiting artist, and in her work the sweeping swathes of oils on canvas, with subtle use of collage, express the drama, beauty and ever-changing light and colour of the North Sea and Yorkshire coastline," says David.

Another Adze permanent exhibitor, Lesley Coates-Jones, contributes semi-abstract oil paintings that communicate her love for life, light and colour, this time expressed through a series of works influenced by the Aegean Sea.

South Western potter Christine Feiler has taken up Adze Gallery's invitation to show her glazed creations in the North for the first time. She exhibits primarily in St Ives and London and her ceramics are inspired by her response to the Cornish coast and sea.

Michael Lyons, a luminary of modern British sculpture, seldom exhibits in commercial galleries, being better known home and abroad for his large commissioned sculptures. He follows up his solo exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with his York debut, and the Pisces Series on show has never before been exhibited.

Lyons works chiefly with plate steel, his sculptures exploring movement, light, shade and his interpretation of the solid and the void. "The idea of collage and part-by-part building of images - in this case fish forms - is central to his sculptures," says David. "This body of cut-and-welded work draws upon the sea as its theme, specifically fishes jumping through nets, an image inspired by a Picasso drawing of fishermen casting their nets from a boat."

Artwork In Coast is for sale at £120 to £4,000 at Adze Gallery, where the opening hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm, and at other times by arrangement on 01904 674348.

Coast, coastal paintings and ceramics by artists from St Ives, Cornwall, and the North, is on show at.Adze Gallery, Gillygate, York, until November 9.

Updated: 08:58 Friday, September 20, 2002