Talking About Sculpture.
In addition to our regular exhibitions of painting, we have a permanent rotating display of sculpture and ceramics. Currently we have the phenomenal precision of Jin Eui Kim’s optical illusory wheel-thrown, hand-painted pieces hanging on the wall alongside the organic forms of Matt Sherratt and Lauren Nauman on the shelf. Here is a brief low down on why you should know these sculptors.
JIN EUI KIM
“One of the top ten ceramicists you need to know”
Manchester Art Gallery and The National Museum (Wales) have both purchased his works recently for their permanent collections.
Exploration with tonal effects and spatial illusions by using gradient in tone, width of bands and interval between bands is Jin Eui’s passion that results in works that are both visually and intellectually challenging.
Jin Eui Kim is a ceramic artist, originally from South Korea. He has garnered critical acclaim since receiving his PhD in ceramics from the Cardiff School of Art and Desig in 2012.
LAUREN NAUMAN
A recent Royal College of Art graduate, Lauren’s working process, although equally as delicate, could not be further away from Jin Eui Kim’s level of control, as each vessel is left to collapse and fold through their own volition, during the firing process.
This year House of Garden coined Lauren Nauman ‘a cutting-edge talent’.
Nauman’s cage-like designs were originally intended as a surface decoration with which she was experimenting while studying for her Masters in ceramics and glass, before she realised that they could stand as vessels in their own right. Working with the traditional industrial method of slip casting using plaster moulds, she makes straight cages of wet clay, which bend and curve into an entirely new incarnation when they are fired in the kiln.
MATT SHERRATT
Matt hand builds his sculptures with a mindfulness to the interplay of negative and positive shapes, creating a line for the eye to dance over. Lines which are further enhanced by the texture and colour of the finishes he uses.Matt’s forms are honed and shaped to balance aesthetic surface tension with framed spaces. The play between negative and positive shapes is as important as the tension between surface and space, edge and void.
The finishes on his pieces hold and reflect light. A lustre glaze will bounce light while a terra-sigillata surface absorbs light, either dramatically or sensitively, through minimal colour. From earth bound materials to framing space his work explores deep questions of existence, of why there is something and not nothing.
