Collections | 24 June - 15 October 2023 | Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Collections: Silver Jubilee Exhibition

24 June - 15 October 2023

We will be marking our Silver Jubilee this June - 25 incredible years of Sarah Myerscough Gallery - with the exhibition ‘Collections,’ an immersive and representative curation of our key artists and artworks. The show weaves together the makers, materials and objects who express the vision and mandate of the gallery; expect signature works from our famous and familiar names, as well as new directions, deviations and developments.

Work in wood remains the focus and first love of the gallery; this exhibition showcases a full spectrum of the most exciting contemporary work being made in wood across the globe today. Raw and highly worked, scorched, turned, foraged, transformed into intricate veneers, cast or coated in bronze, worked via CNC and untamed flame, warped, sandblasted and bleached - but always remaining inherently respectful of the material in itself. The work expresses a deep and lasting bond between maker and material, founded upon that respect. The exhibition is, as such, a collection of conversations with material, each teased out by the individual maker and led by their material’s quirks, intentions and history. We show objects in wood from Eleanor Lakelin, Julian Watts, Katrien Doms, Micheal Peterson and sculptural furniture from Gareth Neal, Nic Webb, John Makepeace OBE, and Egeværk.

Interwoven through the landscape of wood is rare and exquisite examples of natural materials being taken to new crafting heights - Urushi lacquer, foraged feathers, stoneware and porcelain and glints of precious metals: highlights of our jubilee silver and ripples of Bronze. We show for the first time the work of Urushi artist Mayumi Onagi, her sensitive sculptures quietly express the ebbs and swirls of time, she meditates on the interconnectivity of life and death through her ancient material, worked on slowly and incrementally across the months and years. We are also pleased to present a new body of work from Marc Fish, the debut piece of his new Kasumi-Uchi collection. Kasumi-Uchi, meaning cloud or mist metal is made from 3 different lacquers - bronze, aluminium and black - each a thin layer applied on top of the last and built up, many hours of labour then goes into revealing the curling pattern of their combination.

We also show new sensuous work in Magpie feathers from Kate MccGwire, and tectonic crackled porcelain and stoneware sculptures from Luke Fuller. To coincide with our silver Jubilee we will also unveil a new piece in the series of collaborative objects between master metalworker Adi Toch and renowned wood artist Jim Partridge; the sorched wood and silver stool acts as a dramatic and very appropriate emblem to celebrate our 25 years as a gallery.