Castle Gallery, Inverness, January 2009

Beachware bowl by Will Shakspeare

THIS CURRENT mixed show of paintings, prints, sculpture, glass, ceramics and jewellery introduces exciting new work together with some interesting developments in some of the gallery’s regularly exhibiting artists.

A highlight of the exhibition is the unique and poignant work of Capetown-based ceramic artist John Bauer. These are pieces on an intimate hand-held scale exploring the personal memories, thoughts and dreams of the artist. Their beauty lies not only in the fragility of the chosen material, a visual diary incised on porcelain, but in their emotional resonance. There is something very honest, vulnerable and human in their making and also in the experience of direct contact with these works.

Bauer gathers thought in each dish like form for the viewer to hold and to witness, investing the object with deeply personal meaning and archetypal significance. In “The pursuit of love so often becomes the addiction” the imprint of old lace and crochet adorn the outer surface while figures float within in soft dream-like blue.

Bauer’s ceramics are objects of remembrance, recollection and connection with the viewer defined by honesty and painful experience rather than sentimentality. “What an uncertain world we live in…” gives a glimpse of a darker, less hopeful reality while “I hope that when next I fall in love it will be forever. I hope that you hope that too” is a drawing and object of pure poetry.

Raku work by Andrew Niblett draws inspiration from “munitions of warfare and the wartime coastal defences of Normandy”. Characterised by strong forms and what can only be described as an intense aurora borealis of colour, the fusion of smoked clay and metal makes the physical process of Raku beautifully visible. Variations of colour and movement within bold simplified form provide an interesting contrast. The industrial design of warfare is curiously transformed by the almost etched marks on metal and the myriad of colour contained in each work.

There are some fine examples of work in glass including Graham Muir’s supremely elegant ‘Slipper’, Bill and Jacquie MacNeill’s ‘Triptych’ of fused glass and metal , Carrie Paxton’s large and colourful retro plates, and Will Shakspeare’s new ‘Beachware’ and ‘Fireworks’ ranges. Adam Aaronson’s ‘Large Tapestry Vase’ is wonderfully subtle, a simple opaque form utilising silver leaf and droplets of turquoise, crimson, orange and soft pink within the central plaque like decoration. Glass work will be a particular focus in the gallery in February with the opportunity to see larger scale pieces Gunta Krummins.

Lindsey Gallacher’s wonderfully observed and finely constructed drawings in jewellery wire on paper such as ‘Flock of Greylag Geese’, intricately layered scrap metal jewellery by Edinburgh based artist Colin Duncan, and a series of enamel panels on copper by Janine Partington are also among the exhibition’s highlights. It is equally exciting to see new currents emerging in the Castle Gallery’s regularly exhibiting artists such as Blandine Anderson, Katie Spong and Trevor Price.

Regular visitors to the gallery will be familiar with Anderson’s finely crafted ceramic sculptures inspired by nature and Gaelic proverbs. Recent work such as ‘Fan Tree’ represents an exciting evolution of form and scale in the artist’s work. A strong and beautifully rendered piece, ‘Fan Tree’ feels like a scaled-up detail derived from nature but living and breathing in its own right.

Even in the miniatures on display there is a sense of evolution at play exemplified by ‘Owl With Green and White Flowers’. This small piece has the same monumental quality as Inuit soapstone sculpture. There is a something elemental at work here which is not simply the result of acute observation of the natural world, manifest in detail, but a stronger sense of understanding and affinity with the subject through relative abstraction.

Prints by Trevor Price such as ‘Open Book’ (etching and drypoint) clearly exhibit the artist’s stylistic treatment of the figure. However rather than using powerful black outline to define form, here Price explores light and shade. Use of chiaroscuro is revealing an intriguing nuance of character in his work and it will be extremely interesting to see this develop further in the artist’s paintings and prints, both technically and psychologically.

Price’s often playful depiction of coupled figures seems to have taken a more meditative turn, revealed here too in the relationship between the two figures absorbed in their own spot-lit view. In an intimate space, where we expect to be read like an open book each character appears comfortably separate.

Katie Spong’s latest monoprints also have an exploratory spirit in them, using different textures of paper and abstraction to develop new work. It is very encouraging to see artists stretch themselves and audience expectation while maintaining their unique vision, and that this creative development is supported by the gallery representing them.

Artists Ian McWhinnie, Jonathan Shearer, Nicola Slattery, Marie Prett, Bronwen Sleigh, Samantha Bryan and Shazia Mahmood will feature in the gallery’s ongoing 2009 exhibition programme. This current mixed show represents a fine start to the new year with a satisfying combination of the familiar and the unexpected.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

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• Castle Gallery