The owner of a the new Ceri Hand Gallery which opened on 4th July 2008 says she hopes the business will give the region’s creative talent another reason to stay in Liverpool.

The Ceri Hand Gallery has been created by former FACT director Ceri Hand as a Merseyside equivalent to the London-based commercial art galleries that specialise in selling contemporary art.

Its first exhibition is called These Living Walls of Jet, and will be opened with a VIP event tomorrow before it is opened to the public on Saturday.

Ms Hand said she wanted to help Liverpool artists showcase their work to a national and international audience.Ms Hand said:

“For collectors, I’m trying to offer something in the North West that London has hundreds of. People from the North West don’t necessarily want to have to travel to London to buy into the contemporary art scene. In terms of artists’ careers, it’s important they don’t just see themselves as local artists. But I also have to give artists a reason to stay and live in the city, and not move to London if they don’t want to.”

These Living Walls of Jet features 11 artists including painter Henrietta Acloque, sculptor Rebecca Stevenson, and designer and photographer Petros Chrisostomou. Persijn Broersen and Margit Lukács have created a wall drawing of a complex trellis structure “that conjures cosmic voids and the human desire for order”.

Ms Hand has worked within Liverpool’s public sector art scene for 16 years and has worked internationally as a curator, commissioner and art adviser. She has also served as a director of Liverpool arts organisation Metal.

The gallery, which will host up to 10 exhibitions a year, will also offer services to artists and collectors including advice on starting collections and publishing opportunities. Its brand was created by Liverpool design agency Uniform