Bringing together the joy of colour with bold and creative shapes, this exhibition celebrates the versatility of clay as seen in expressive statement ceramics. The show features recent work by three high profile makers.
Tanya Gomez is a renowned for her undulating porcelain vessels in her signature lustrous hues. Working from East Sussex, she throws the vessels in sections on the wheel, later joining them and sculpting the rims when the clay is leather hard. She conducts multiple firings to achieve her brilliant finishes. In this exhibition Tanya introduces softer glazes in celadon and white alongside the energetic hues for which she is known.
“This body of work is full of joy in making and an affirmation of what I love doing. I know the pieces well and there are challenges in each vessel.” –Tanya Gomez
Jenny Southam‘s hand built and decorated figurative sculptures draw from the realms of European and English mythology, from domestic incidents and rituals, and most recently, from vintage knitting patterns. The Devon based artist predominantly uses a lightly grogged terracotta, which picks up the most subtle of modelled figurative expressions. Each ceramic piece is its own psychological drama.
“When I enter the studio I am searching for that serene state of absolute absorption that making and drawing can gift us, which we all wish will, in some manner, enrich our audience.” –Jenny Southam
Richard Wilson interprets the beauty of the creative world around us through patterns and colours, using pots as three-dimensional canvases. Through works that explore a simplicity of form he will showcase decoration created using iron pigment he collected from the cliffs at West Bay.
“Decoration is the journey I take to balance colour and design. I treat the slips like oil paints, using different brushes to create shapes and pattern, and draw with a slip trailer on top.” –Richard Wilson
Together these artists present a show full of diversity, colour, expression and craftsmanship.
Jenny Southam hand builds figurative sculptures in terracotta clay. She delights in exploring colourful gestural mark-making over their surfaces. This painterly decoration aims to echo the emotional resonance of each piece.
“When I enter the studio I am searching for that serene state of absolute absorption that making and drawing can gift us, which we all wish will, in some manner, enrich our audience.” – Jenny Southam
In a career spanning nearly 50 years, ceramicist, Sophie MacCarthy has developed a unique and distinctive personal style. Through her subtle and bold use of coloured slips, painterly brushwork, stencils and wax-resist, she evokes the colours, forms and movements of the passing seasons. Often focusing on the ground, she finds beauty in the accidental compositions created by wind-blown leaves, stalks and detritus sometimes gathered around a storm drain or scattered over concrete and tarmac, juxtaposing the vibrant colours of the natural world with the gritty textures of the urban environment.
‘She has a poetic insight into the natural world’ David Whiting
Throughout his long career Peter has always sought pathways to the development of new ideas. Often this is a slow process, but sometimes a particular event speeds things along.
Partaking of two residencies in China recently, where Peter worked in porcelain at high temperatures, led him to develop a new body of work, made alongside his existing practice to which Peter is still deeply committed.
This new exhibition represents the outcome of Peter’s working practice.
'This exhibition explores objects that express a quiet equilibrium: fragile, shifting forms that exist in a state of delicate imbalance. Their stillness is easily disturbed, as if the act of holding too tightly might cause something essential to disappear. The works reflect an interest in forms that resist perfection, remaining slightly unresolved, unsettled, and quietly alive.' Akiko Hirai
