A stunning engraved mirror depicting the world-famous Black Sabbath ‘heavy metal’ bench on Birmingham’s golden mile in fine detail has been unveiled at a new art exhibition.

Artist Paul Riding’s work, which includes embedded lighting to highlight the bench, is one of dozens of artworks in the City of Life exhibition on the walls of Velvet Music Rooms on Broad Street. The display has been put together by Birmingham Art Zone, a group that includes some of the city’s brightest budding artists.

Mike Olley, general manager of Westside BID, helped to arrange the exhibition after initially seeing a new painting by Paula Gabb that looks down on the canal over the Black Sabbath bench on Broad Street. He then met with Paula and the wider leadership team of Birmingham Art Zone who prompted their members to capture more images of the Westside area, the results of which are now in the exhibition.

Paula, the founder of Birmingham Art Zone, speaking at the launch of the exhibition on Tuesday, July 5, said: “This is so exciting, as being able to show our art off in such a wonderful venue as this will enable us to reach out to people I wouldn’t have dreamt about. There are some great pieces of work for everyone to enjoy, and we’re particularly proud of the stunning engraved mirror that Paul has worked so hard on, as we know how important Black Sabbath’s ‘heavy metal’ bench is to music fans worldwide.”

Dani Hadley, co-owner of Velvet Music Rooms, said: “This is an absolute first for us, and the enthusiasm and creativity that’s been injected into our venue is contagious and great to be around.”

The City of Life exhibition is now on the walls of Velvet Music Rooms until September, and all the artwork is available to buy.

As well as Paul Riding and Paula Gabb, other artists whose work is displayed includes Rachel Akers, Kirk Andrews, Amy Carroll, Chris Fothergill Sonal Gajbe, Tim Griffiths, Chris Hammond, Dan Lopez, Angela Ortenzi-MacColl, Helen Owen, Helen Roberts, Natt Wallbank and Emma Woolley.

(All photos - © Dyson Media)