When the Turner Prize has gone, Workplace Gallery artists will still be here. DAVID WHETSTONE meets Paul Merrick who is currently exhibiting at the venue

PEOPLE travelled from afar to see the Turner Prize awarded at Baltic last week and many stayed overnight. But where did they go the morning after?

Several took the opportunity to check out the region’s other artistic attractions.

Miles Thurlow and Paul Moss, who run Workplace Gallery in Gateshead’s old post office, capitalised on the art world influx by hosting a post-Turner Prize viewing of their latest exhibition.

It’s Workplace’s first solo exhibition by Paul Merrick who was born in Oxford, graduated from Newcastle University in 1997 and, like an increasing number of young artists, stuck around.

The Turner Prize is aimed at artists under 50. This year’s shortlist included none from the North East although Hilary Lloyd did study at Newcastle Polytechnic, graduating in 1987 when the Baltic was a derelict building.

Following the decision to send the Turner Prize out of London every other year, it will be held in Derry in 2013 and who knows where after that?

Former Baltic boss Stephen Snoddy, who was also at Workplace, bet me the next out-of-London venue would be in Glasgow.

He wasn’t happy, saying he had told Tate they should take the Turner Prize out of London years ago, only to be knocked back. He envisaged it coming to his New Art Gallery in Walsall but was taken aback when Baltic was handed it.

But now that we have hosted the competition, maybe the next step is to get North East artists shortlisted.

A bet at least as safe as Mr Snoddy’s would be that the first Turner Prize winner from the region will have had some association with the Workplace Gallery. Maybe it will be Paul Merrick whose solo show of works largely based on found objects ranges across all three floors of the building.

“Originally I was interested in painting but in the last three or four years I’ve started to move away from it, although there are still elements of painting in my work,” he said as we stood before a piece resembling an abstract painting with marks on a blue background. A twin was displayed nearby.

“These two were pulled out of a scrapyard and then taken back to my studio where I made the decision that they were finished,” said Merrick.