Still Life: image and object 2025

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For many of us the day starts with breakfast - a bowl of porridge, muesli, or eggs cooked whichever way and eaten from a plate. Still life comprises the objects and utensils we use to cook and eat.

We also surround ourselves with things - keepsakes, commonplace or distinctly valuable objects, whether hand-crafted or manufactured. They are a distinct aspect of being human and subjects for art-making.

The form and use of cooking pots, storage containers, ancient and modern, have become part of our everyday collective imagination. 'Still life' has been an occupation of artists for hundreds of years.

Our fascination with, or love of materials, of fired clay, of paint on canvas or carbon on paper is irrefutable; and objects can, often do suggest more than themselves, have symbolic or metaphorical meaning.

Each of these ceramicists, painters and draughtsmen/women share a love of the hand-held, hand-formed; they celebrate objects, and by making them, impart them with undeniable appeal, presence and in time, enduring significance.

Artists: René Bolten, David Collins, Geoff Crispin, Greg Crowe, Rachel Ellis, Marianne Huhn, Hendrik Kolenberg, Jen Lyall, Moraig McKenna, Susie McMeekin, Sallie Moffatt, Sarah Ormonde, Evan Salmon, Mitsuo Shoji, Natalie Velthuyzen, Maryanne Wick