Mellis: Stokes – Colour and Form takes place from 1 October – 12 November 2011 (Tues – Fri 10 -5 & Sat 12- 4) at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow.

The exhibition includes work by Margaret Mellis: paintings & constructions in wood, Ann Stokes: Ceramics, Telfer Stokes: constructions in metal and Charlotte Mellis: Ceramics

Following on from previous exhibitions which have represented two generations of makers/artists from one family, the Collins now brings together for the first time, work by four members of the Mellis Stokes family.

The late Margaret Mellis was only 15 when she enrolled in painting at Edinburgh College of Art and was held in high regard by her tutors, including Peploe. After studying in Europe, she and her husband, the acclaimed writer Adrian Stokes, moved to St Ives where they were joined by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and other emerging avant-garde artists .While the latter elected to set up an artists’ community in St Ives, Margaret, her son Telfer Stokes and second husband, Francis Davidson, moved to Southwold where, from 1978 onwards, she began to move away from painting to her famous constructions in driftwood collected on the local beach.

Telfer Stokes trained at the Slade, London and at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York and from 1971 focused on the publication of artists’ books under his Scotland-based company, Weproductions. Having returned to the family home in Southwold, his practice now concentrates on constructions in re-cycled metal which compliment well, Margaret’s pieces in the exhibition.

Ann Stokes, Margaret’s younger sister trained as a dancer and began working with clay in the 1960’s. Largely self-taught, she produces decorative, thrown tableware as well as delightful carved and sculpted birds, animals, mirrors and trees, from her Hampstead studio.

Charlotte Mellis was encouraged to take up ceramics after being taught to throw pots by her aunt Ann. While studying at Harrogate College of Art under Tim Proud, she became interested in hand-built forms, inspired by a love of architecture and photography, but continued to produce slip glazed tableware alongside her more sculptural work in studios in the north of England. Today, Charlotte works from her home on the Isle of Mull and is represented in the exhibition by a series of sculptural forms inspired by rundown buildings in S. African townships and Scottish corrugated iron huts.

Supported by an illustrated catalogue with essay by Giles Sutherland.

Also available: monographs on Ann Stokes and Margaret Mellis, recently published by Lund Humphries, and a DVD documentary on Margaret Mellis.

Collins Gallery, 22 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ
Tel: 0141 548 2558 /E: collinsgallery@strath.ac.uk / Web: www. collinsgallery.strath.ac.uk

Source: Collins Gallery