WJM
  • Gallery
    • Rivers of London
    • Still Life
    • London Landscapes
    • British Landscape
    • Flora and Fauna
    • Past Work
  • Blog
  • About/Contact Me
  • Gallery
    • Rivers of London
    • Still Life
    • London Landscapes
    • British Landscape
    • Flora and Fauna
    • Past Work
  • Blog
  • About/Contact Me
Blog

Turning Earth at the Barbican

3/25/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

Picture
The Barbican is a weird building and every time I go there I am exposed to more of its strangeness.  It reminds me of the tower block described in Broken Homes. 

This time I went to see the Turning Earth.  The exhibition was housed in two small halls, just off the two storey conservatory that for reasons that no doubt make sense to someone,  occupies the 3rd and 4th floor of Barbican Floor.  It is a strange place, a combination of brutalist architecture, swathed with exotic tropical plants, ponds and fish.  You feel a bit like you are on the set of Logans Run 
Picture
Picture
I was there for a specific reason.  I grew up with a man called Jack Gregory and his wife Saskia Pomeroy is a potter and a member of Turning Earth.  I had gone there to see them. Fortunately, and no doubt skewed by a tiny level of bias,  she is really quite good.  She has a good eye for shape and some nice subtle, pastel type colours  (see left) and I came away with two (see above).
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Indeed it was quite a high quality show all round.  Here is a trot through some of my favourites.   I also came away with a small tripod pot from RW pottery (above).   She has a good combination of gnarly rough iron like outside and a smooth lustrous interior. There was a very interesting version of this with several such pots, joined together to form a sort of hexagonal shape.  Mixing the styles up a bit there is also a series of small amber filled rectangles, like a minimalist bee hive. 
Picture
Katie Blagden has a sort of cat animal thing going on.  Little smiley faces appears on lots of her works.  It is mainly white with dimples of lustrous blues and turquoise. The contrast between the two is effective and of course they have a nice tactile quality. 
Picture
Miyelle Ceramics does a smooth white/beige exterior,  spotted with brown flecks.  With the tall vases and the cups, the surface wraps around over itself, so you get a lip or edge up the side, that attracts the eye.  The best ones are with the striking blue interiors.  Blue can be very effective in pottery and appeals to me considerably. ​
Picture
​L’Atelier M  (above) has gone for well wrought simplicity, with beige or black interior against a white exterior.  The designs seem quite simple, but are slightly misshapen (in a deliberate way) which give them a unique charm.  I liked the small plates in the wooden shelves the best, particularly the one where the blue intersects the white. 
Picture
Studio Ran J (above) does this burnt effect, solid looking pottery.  They look a bit earthenware but are in fact pottery or porcelain. My favourites are the orange and black flamed pots, and the cups with the slits and circles cut through them.  I had already exhausted my budget so sadly could not take either of these. 
Picture
Sally Dawson has a slightly Jackson Pollock (above) thing going on with colours splattered,  although in a controlled and pleasing fashion.  I particularly like the cups under the wooden stands. They had a good tactile quality and I like the way the yellows and the blue swathes of colour interact. 
Picture
Picture
Glazeycat Ceramics has, as the name might suggests small pottery cat creatures that are very sweet, but it is the turquoise glazed plates that I thought were particularly good and her crazed cracked folded vase. 
Picture
​Diana Ng produces these solid, well shaped classic Japanese style mugs, with a signature stamped into the base.  
Picture
​Guy Brain Ceramics has an elegant range of dark blue lustrous vases (above) which really shout out of you from the stand.
Picture
Then Ryan Barret, who has gone for size and heft.  Done it quite well.

In other exciting news I have a solo show of paintings of the RIver Lee (below) starting at the Indo bar for the whole of April.  It starts on  Wednesday 4th April with a opening night party from 7 - 11pm.  Feel free to attend. 
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    William John Mackenzie

    I am an artist with a  specialism in landscapes and still life.  My contact details are here. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly