New work in the gallery

Contemporary Ceramics Centre is hugely excited to be showing the work of Grant Aston. Aston's pieces embody a fascination with how shapes work together. He takes shapes found in architecture and from the structure of the body, then integrates them into his sculpture. At the crux of these  pieces is a study of man's discordant relationship to the modern world and to the planet from which he has evolved. Grant aims to produce work in a spontaneous, intuitive manner to create a powerful, immediate outcome.

 

This week has also seen the arrival of some stunning pieces of work by James Oughtibridge. He constructs curved sections of clay with numerous planes, offering multi-layered perspectives. On looking inside the viewer is invited into an interior of contorted shadows. Oughtibridge builds and refines the surfaces of the clay, creating structures that, seemingly without a flat base, appear almost to be afloat, like individual entities at odds with their surroundings. These sculptural vessels are bold and complex, simultaneously powerful and serene.

Another exciting arrival to the gallery are some new pieces by Penny Fowler. A selection of  simple sculptural vessel forms, layered and carved with contrasting coloured clays. Fowler uses porcelain and bone china clays, casting very thin, fine forms into her moulds. The forms are hand carved and finely sanded to achieve a smooth, pebble-like quality. As a London-based potter, Fowler's work reflects  twenty-first-century living and the urban landscape that surrounds her, combined with inspiration drawn from the human body and natural forms.  Her pieces are beautifully dynamic, also exploring light, shade, translucency, and opacity through interplay of colour and line.