Kamil Szczepaniak @Kamiletto_

Cornus Stems, Eucalyptus leaves in metal vase 14th June - 17th July 2024

Szczepaniak sees nature as art, and his work reflects this perspective. He creates minimalist compositions using essential natural materials like sticks, grass and leaves. Through dynamic lines and negative space he highlights natures unique beauty, showcasing is endless artistry.

 

 

Michael Reece

Ceramics, April 20th - May 19th 2024

Michael Reece was born in Bombay, moving to Brazil and then the United States before settling in London. He works intuitively, letting forms evolve in the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi, where value and beauty is placed on the transience and imperfection of objects. Working mainly in porcelain and rough, black stoneware he allows the clay to take centre stage, limiting the use of glazes and oxides to providing an organic texture which results in compositions that are both harmonious and elegant. His forms have been described as "somewhere between a ribcage and a cathedral", or "dredged from the ocean, encrusted by coral". The work is full of paradoxes: the winged structures are reminiscent of vessels and yet the raw, torn clay doesn't hold liquid. This charismatic collection has a strong emotional quality that allows the observer's imagination free rein. 

MARIE-THERESE ROSS 

Sprites, May 1st - June 1st 2023 

Marie-Thérèse Ross explores the hidden workings of the mind, focusing on states of physical, emotional & psychological transformation. Her work appears humorous as well as darkly subversive, seeming to hide herself in plain sight. She seeks to both hide and reveal awkward childhood memories, episodes that reflect on her own sense of vulnerability and mortality. She more often creates installations that focus on domestic interiors with anthropomorphic furniture, and wall-based sculptures and trapped giant black birds.  Birds are often used symbolically in art history and Ross adds her own layer of personal symbolism.

For this window display Ross is showing three wall-based works and 3 dark birds, including Cave Bird which won the Sculpture Art Gemini Prize in 2021.  These wall works are based on Corps Exquis, or Consequences, a game often played by the Surrealists. Players write or draw in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to partially conceal what they have done, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution. 

Ross’ sculptures are made of a combination of laminated wood parts.  Using found objects which are integrated and sublimated into the works with carved and painted up-cycled wood, colour adds another layer of expression and meaning to the whole. The mass of wood echoes the drawn and cut-out lines found in her drawings and collages, lending itself well to her process of working.  Dowels join and secure pieces together, often left exposed rather than smoothed away and hidden. Surfaces are not polished, the grain of the wood is left visible, and the process of making revealed.

​Marie-Thérèse Ross MRSS is a member of The Royal Society of Sculptors. She is an Art Gemini Prize winner (2021), and her work is featured in Flux Review #7. Her work has been exhibited at the Royal Cambrian Academy, The Stone Space, APT Deptford, and in 2022 she was commissioned by Camden to design posters for newly restored Swiss Cottage Library.