Stephanie Quayle "URBAN JUNGLE"

Gallery 38 is delighted to present a new solo show “URBAN JUNGLE” by Stephanie Quayle.

Stephanie was born and raised on Isle of Man where she lives and works. Life-sized animals created in her farmyard studio, surrounded by the natural world, are wild yet sensitive, each one unique. Their eyes seem to be questioning us living in the chaos of urban life.

Primordial clay sculptures occupy the gallery space, making it their own and challenging the viewers’ gaze. The encounter with the wild is at contrast with the stark formal environment of the gallery space.

A brood of hens and cockerels perch at the entrance, a troop of monkeys run riot and a large male Orangutan rests atop of a reclaimed tree trunk and gazes out onto a world he seemingly doesn’t understand but with recognition and percipience in his eyes.
The smaller animals whom we are too quick to humanise, toads, frogs, birds, rabbits and squirrels make everyday domestic objects their own, nesting, sleeping and upturning the order of the manmade world.

Stephanie makes a number of drawings before laying her hands on the clay. Keeping the energy of drawing, her sculptures aim to be as rapid and direct as she sketches, containing all the marks of their making. Rough and textured clays are willed into being, and rendered solid through the process of firing in a kiln.

“The work focuses on the force of nature inherent in man and animal. Living and working on a farm, surrounded by nature inspires and drives the making process. The sense of power, humility, wonder and all knowingness of the natural world puts us in our place and reminds us of our connection and subsequent disconnect to the natural world.”

• Stephanie Quayle