ART REVIEWS
“I’ve been trying to get a bright pink for 20 years and haven’t managed it yet,” declares ceramicist Sophie Cook, famous for her elegantly sculpted bottle, pod and teardrop forms. Yet there are plenty of other rich and vibrant colours to behold in her new exhibition entitled Multiplicity at London’s Contemporary Ceramics Centre.
Continue reading “Sophie Cook – Multiplicity”
It’s a common theme in history that reactionary groups look back to a so-called golden age, believing that society’s ills will be cured if one returned to the values of the good old days. It’s never that simple of course and the idea of a false collective memory looking at the past through a rose-tinted filter is the theme of Henrik Uldalen’s new solo exhibition, Lethe, at JD Malat Gallery.
Continue reading “Henrik Uldalen – Lethe”
“I like the clay to speak for itself”, says ceramicist Margaret Curtis, speaking to me at the launch of her new exhibition, Surface, at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre in London. Her pieces, whether they be large vases and cylinders or small bottles and cups, have one thing in common – their imperfection. “I make them in the round, sort of precise, then I start pushing them and poking them and distorting them and let the movement of the clay give a lot of feeling.”
Continue reading “Margaret Curtis – Surface”
Like many sculptors, Emil Alzamora is fascinated and preoccupied with the human form, a form that everyone, from any culture, can relate to on many levels. His new exhibition at London’s Pontone Gallery is dominated by figurative sculptures that are both anonymous and androgynous, being allegories and metaphors for the human condition.
Continue reading “Emil Alzamora – Expanded Present”
Rebecca Appleby is more than a ceramicist. She is an all-round artist who uses ceramics as her canvas. Her abstract pieces are sculptures informed by art, architecture and industrial archaeology. Her work over the past two decades has centred on an exploration of the contemporary urban landscape and its relationship with nature. Now she has a mostly new body of work, Inner Order, just opened at London’s Contemporary Ceramics Centre.
Continue reading “Rebecca Appleby – Inner Order”
Multi-prize-winning Austrian ceramicist Thomas Bohle has acquired a reputation as one of Europe’s most gifted potters. His beautifully crafted bowls and vessels have been exhibited the world over in exhibitions, museums and private collections.
Continue reading “Thomas Bohle – New Work”
American artist Peter Gronquist draws on a wide range of media for his works – fabric, metal, ceramics, frosted glass, mirrors, even taxidermy. Working from his barn by a lake near Portland, Oregon, his oeuvre is multi-disciplinary – sculpture, painting and installation.
In whatever medium, his themes have revolved chiefly around American obsessions with material wealth, consumerism, guns, and religion. He once said, “Our culture puts money and violence on way too high a pedestal. I think these days people no longer see the line between entertainment and reality.”
Continue reading “Peter Gronquist – Shape Shifter”
In keeping with his focus on artists who confront current themes by referencing art history, gallery owner James Freeman has invited five European artists to show work for his latest exhibition who take their inspiration from the political and social upheavals of the Early Modern period from the 1500s onwards. Continue reading “Early Modern Matters – various artists”
Like most ceramic artists, Bev Bell-Hughes began by making functional slipware, producing cups, saucers, pots and suchlike and selling them in markets in London. At Harrow art school, she began intuitively pinching the clay, a technique she has refined and which is in abundant evidence at her latest exhibition of 45 new works at London’s Contemporary Ceramics Centre entitled Tidal Echo. Continue reading “Tidal Echo – Bev Bell-Hughes”
