A new exhibition at the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate celebrates the element of water and how the body moves through it with a new series of artworks specially commissioned for the cultural Olympiad 2012. The show features new photographs by Yorkshire based Tim Smith and Tessa Bunney which concern bodies and water, hung alongside new paintings by figure painter Maxwell Doig and artworks specially selected by curator Jane Sellars from the Harrogate Fine Art Collection, including work by Turner Prize nominee Tacita Dean. The Mercer Gallery have commissioned Bradford photographer Tim Smith to photograph divers in training, and the resulting work features images taken at the Harrogate Hydro Pool and also the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds. Smith’s recent photographs of Balbir Singh’s ballet in the water, Synchronized, will also be on show. North Yorkshire photographer Tessa Bunney includes interesting new work from a recent project which documents the activities of swimmers at the Serpentine pool in Hyde Park, London. She comments: “The swimmers of the Serpentine Swimming Club are people from all walks of life, all age groups and every ability but these photographs make them indistinguishable.” This exhibition piece combines stills and sound, made in collaboration with a sound recordist at the Serpentine, so the visitor will get a sense of the sounds around the pool, and hear people talking about what swimming means to them. Figure painter Maxwell Doig will display his beautiful paintings of figures swimming. Now living in Holmfirth he studied at the Slade School of Art, London. Curator Jane Sellars comments: “A notable feature of Doig’s work are his aerial views – these oblique viewpoints have a tendency to emphasize the stillness of static figures and subjects.” Doig is preoccupied with the human figure and its spatial relationship combined with the interplay of light and shade, as he puts it, ‘In an age when everything is moving fast, I’m interested in portraying stillness and quiet’. The art of Doig, Bunney and Smith will be accompanied by works from the Harrogate Fine Art Collection including: Turner prize nominee Tacita Dean: Gellert, 1998, a suite of 4 photographs created during an artists’ exchange in Budapest which feature women bathers basking in the rejuvenating waters of the historic Gellert thermal baths. Simon Palmer (1805-1851): Woodland Plunge Pool, described as one of Britain's greatest artists, this large gouache painting, which was bought by the Friends of the gallery in 2005, connects ideas of nature, landscape, diving, water. Martin Meyrick, photo collage of the plunge pool at the Turkish Baths in Harrogate This is a beautiful, soothing and contemplative exhibition which reflects Harrogate’s 2012 exhibition theme of the Olympics, water and swimming. Dive! Art and Water is at The Mercer Art Gallery, Swan Harrogate, North Yorkshire, entry is free and the exhibition runs from 12 June – 2 September 2012.