Nicholas Lees and Greg Payce ‘Liminal and Lenticular’

FURTHER READING

 

Continuing Messums’ interest in ceramics to connect the viewer and artist through the processes of making, the gallery is proud to announce a new exhibition that demonstrates a deep connection with and knowledge of the material of clay.  

‘Liminal and Lenticular’ brings together the work of two talented ceramicists, Nicholas Lees and Greg Payce, to explore their shared preoccupations with edge and volume, material and light, both within and without their vessels.   

Lees and Payce create forms from clay that interact with and are made alive by their surroundings. Whether through the revelation of a figurative image in the negative space between vessels, as in Payce’s work, or in the illusory play of light and shadow across the indefinable vessel boundaries, as with Lees, the works provoke a challenge to the viewer, firstly to see and secondly to embrace the constantly shifting image before them. The artists create meaning through uncertainty, of the boundaries and thresholds the viewer perceives, and the revelations there-in.   

Both masters of their artform and their material, Lees and Payce have refined their own unique technical approach that results in artworks of incredible elegance and precision, unbelievably from the human hand. Lees brings his leather-hard thrown vessels to the lathe, carving pin-perfect fins into the clay walls. Colour is achieved, not through the glazed surface but, via absorption of a mineral cocktail through the vessel walls. Both careful techniques that appeal to and upend our perceptions of ceramic and the container. Payce’s expertly thrown pots, of impeccable symmetry and balance, work in unison or often choral harmony to reveal images of the figure or portrait within the constructed space between them.

Alongside their ceramics, both artists display their complementary practice. Drawings by Lees demonstrates his preoccupation with redefining and distorting boundaries through the blurring and bleeding of the inked line, much like Lees’ application of colour to clay through liquid dissipation. Payce’s video work further explores sensations of scale and optics in viewing his ceramics, whilst referencing the deep history of the ceramic continuum that informs his practice.

 

 

Biography 

Nicholas Lees

[
- Present ]
Nicholas Lees’ work has been exhibited widely in the UK and overseas and is held in private and public collections including York City Art Gallery, Westerwald Keramikmuseum in Germany and Royal Caribbean International. He has won several awards including the Cersaie Prize at the Premio Faenza (Italy) in 2015, the National Sculpture Award at the Bluecoat Display Centre in Liverpool in 2010.

Gregory Payce

[
- Present ]
Greg Payce lives and works in Calgary, Alberta and was Professor of Ceramics at the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) before stepping back to concentrate purely on his work. Raised in Edmonton, Payce’s interest in ceramics began in his early years when he knew from the age of six that he wanted to be a potter.

Register Interest

First Name*
Last Name*
Email*
* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

Thank You

We look forward to sending you advance information and keeping you up to date. Please check your email inbox for further information from Messums.org