The exhibition runs Friday 17 September – 24 December Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm
The Vanner Gallery 45 High Street Salisbury SP1 2PB
Works will include painting, drawing and installation
Exhibiting artists
Julia Atkinson, Julie Ayrton, Eleanor Bartlett, Brian Bishop, Lucinda Burgess, Henny Burnett, Fran Donovan, Ruth Dressman, Susan Francis, Mirka Golden-Hann, Michelle Griffiths, Patrick Hallissey, Alex Hanna, Julia Polonski, Jane Ponsford, Peter Randall-Page, Roger Stephens, Joanna Still, Anita Taylor and Julieann Worrall Hood.
Other exhibition news:
Looking ahead, I will have some pieces available at Gallery 57. They are being shown as part of a group exhibition Find, Make 2 October – 23 December
During May my work can be seen as part of the Crafted Collectablesgroup exhibition at Sarah Myerscough Gallery alongside major works by Wycliffe Stutchbury.
6 May – 22 May 2021 Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm Saturday 10am – 4pm
The Old Boathouse 1 White Hart Lane SW13 0PX London
Nearest train station: Barnes Bridge, 20 min journey from Waterloo
Crafted Collectables,launched in Autumn 2020, presents small-scale works by gallery artists and the wider community of artist-designer-makers. These sculptural objects and wall pieces act as artefacts to be treasured over a lifetime, nurtured through family generations or gifted in an act of friendship. We believe that within the taxonomy of objecthood the crafted art object has a unique skill in transferring emotional content; abundant with conceptual narrative and the maker’s affinity to material, it proposes a focal point upon which memories and ideas can be created, held or restored over time.
While in June the much postponed exhibition for the collaborative exchange project with ceramicist Kim Norton Earthbound: a fascination with what lies beneath our feet will be shown as part of the Ground Works exhibition series.
Earthbound 2019-20 Kim Norton and Jane Ponsford
17 June – 27 June 2021 Monday – Sunday 10am – 4pm
The Setting Three Storeys Bristol Old Road Nailsworth GL6 OJE
Join artist/papermaker Jane Ponsford and ceramicist/curator Kim Norton as they explore the similarities and differences in their approach to working with landscape and place. Both Jane and Kim work with materials collected or foraged from different environments to explore materiality and their site-specific creative responses.
Jane Ponsford 2020 Earthbound: objects from the second exchange
They were engaged in a collaborative exchange project during 2020, which involved each sending a series of parcels of collected and made objects, photographs and writing to which the other would respond. The only rule was that they work within the A6 paper format.
As part of the exhibition there will also be a paper making workshop with Jane Ponsford and an ‘in-conversation’ event between Kim Norton and Jane Ponsford. Dates, times and booking information to follow.
‘The artist enters a specific state of mind when he is walking, enabling a creative space to appear. There is a reduction in conscious attention, a letting go, and the mind is able to slip into a different gear.’
Stacked cast cotton rag paper form coloured with oak gall and iron, H 30cm x 24cm diameter
I’m very happy to be showing in Broken Beauty with Sarah Myerscough Gallery at Collect this year, albeit online. The exhibition will be launching virtually and through a series of talks as part of Craft Council’s Collect Art Fair in February and then an enlarged physical exhibition will take place during London Craft Week in May 2021.
Broken Beauty Sarah Myerscough Gallery Craft Council’s Collect Art Fair 28 February – 4 March 2021
“Broken Beauty explores the profound beauty of imperfection and vulnerability. In particular, the artists consider this question through their connection to the natural world, its resilience and fragility, while also acknowledging lost links between humanity and nature. By considering beauty as broken, the aesthetic vision, material content and innovative processes involved in these artworks highlight nature’s imperfections; beauty is found through rich character, a knowingness and an honesty regarding the fallibility found in all living things.
We wish to focus on the role of the collector as an active agent, one who engages with each piece on an essential level during the acquisition process and regards the ownership of objects as a welcomed responsibility. They consider their understanding of how and why the work was made as equally important to the philanthropic caretaking and stewardship required to ensure it lasts as an heirloom of the future.”
Featured artists: Max Bainbridge – wood (England), Adam Buick – ceramic (Wales), Phoebe Cummings – clay (England), Jonas Edvard – mycelium (Netherlands), Egeværk – wood (Denmark), Luke Fuller – ceramic (England), Marlène Huissoud – mixed media (France), Tim Johnson – reedmance and grasses (Spain), Eleanor Lakelin – wood (England), Tomáš Libertíny – beeswax (Slovakia), Kate MccGwire – feathers (England), Erez Nevi Pana – salt (Israel), Nunla O’Donovan – mixed media (Ireland), Jim Partridge & Adi Toch collaboration – wood & metal (England), Jane Ponsford – paper (England), Marc Ricourt – wood (France), Marcin Rusak – flowers and natural shellac (Poland), Diana Scherer – root systems (Netherlands), Julian Watts – wood (USA) and Nic Webb – wood (England).
Gathering Make Hauser & Wirth 21 November 2020 – 27 February 2021
Meanwhile, ‘Gathering’ at Make Hauser & Wirth is entering its last few days. The exhibition run was extended in the hopes that the current Covid restrictions would be lifted before the conclusion of the show but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Despite this situation the exhibition has been very successful. If you would like to see my work and the work of the other artists in the exhibition please visit their website or download the exhibition pack here.Download-Exhibition-Pack
The second lockdown in the UK has meant that the Private View of ‘Gathering’ has had to be postponed although as the exhibition runs from 21 Nov 2020 – 13 Feb 2021 there should be plenty of opportunities to visit. For now please visit the exhibition online via the Make Hauser & Wirth website
The photo above is a view of the landscape that provided much of the materials and inspiration for the work I made for ‘Gathering’ together with some of the pieces I made. Insight into the processes and in-progress photographs can be found on my Instagram.
I am very pleased that a selection of my work made this summer is going to be part of a wonderful exhibition, ‘Gathering’ at Make Hauser & Wirth this November.
21 Nov 2020 – 13 Feb 2021 Opening Day: 20 Nov, 2pm – 8pm
Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 13 High Street, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0AB
Acts of gathering and assembling often reveal the overlooked and unseen, the ordinary and extraordinary. Four artist makers, each with a distinct visual language, seek to retrieve traces and narratives in nature and landscape through material explorations. This deeply personal autumnal presentation features intimate works made from wood, paper, ceramic, precious jewels, metals and found objects. All works are for sale. Contact Jacqueline Moore for information.
Featuring Jane Ponsford, Mark Reddy, Romilly Saumarez Smith and Katie Spragg.
Please join us to celebrate the opening of ‘Gathering’
In order to share a safe and positive experience, we ask that you book a timed reservation to visit the opening day of ‘Gathering’: Register here
Jane Ponsford, Marking Flight, detail photo Michael PhillipsJane Ponsford, research photograph
Jane Ponsford is an artist and papermaker who uses repetitive processes to create sculptural and textural forms made up of hundreds of near identical fragments of handmade paper. Ponsford‘s preoccupation with materiality and process in response to place is an attempt to capture the essence of a landscape. Ephemeral and fragile, her works are informed by locally sourced materials – a chunk of clay or chalk, bark from a fallen tree, oak galls or bramble shoots and dandelion flowers. Ponsford uses these serendipitous finds gathered during walks to provide pigments and dyes to colour her paper, and inform the starting point for her creative process. Intrigued by the impulse to collect, assemble and arrange, Ponsford‘s works are tied, bundled, strung together and simply grouped.
Wood artist, Mark Reddy investigates the humble form of the spoon with a simplicity of purpose. Carved from living wood, bound to the land we walk, Reddy‘s spoons possess a meditative memory of forgotten values and desires. He sees symbolism in the familiar utensil that has occupied a place in our everyday lives throughout our history and cultures. Creating sacred objects which explore the liminal divide between the functional and sculptural, with subtle details and embellishments that embody timeless and universal themes. Deeply informed by the seasons, place, and landscape, Reddy works with wood cut and foraged locally, utilising the innate character and natural energy inherent in his material. Spalted beech, maple, apple, cherry and walnut; carbonized, burnished with gold; adorned with Roman coins, ammonites, carved and found objects. The familiarity of regularly followed paths, the search for a variety of necessary materials to work with, often accidental, whilst observing the small daily changes in the seasons always affects the final outcome of every object.
Romilly Saumarez Smith is a jewellery designer drawn to hidden worlds, taking metal detecting finds which have lain lost and unseen beneath the soil for hundreds of years and filling them with new life above the ground. Her acts of making rekindle the discarded, marked by a previous life – crushed thimbles, old cutlery handles, ancient belt buckles, the everyday remnants of history. With her jeweller’s eye and through the hands of her studio co-makers, she combines these fragments of the past with the richest of materials – silver and gold, coral, seed pearls and diamonds. The ‘Treehandle’ series forms the focus of her new collection on view within this exhibition. The visual metaphors for the tree blossom and foliage, a dendrite fossil, delicately traced with tiny fronds, held by a handle of grooved bone, sea fans spreading from handles in mother of pearl and silver. Mythical worlds conjured through intricate artistry, the salvaged transformed into new artefacts.
Ceramic artist, Katie Spragg creates porcelain sculptures that peer into our interconnected relationship with nature and living organisms, questioning the evolving patterns in which humans and plants co-exist. Spragg is interested in the tension and space between managed and cultivated landscapes and the tenacious resourcefulness of nature, pulling focus to the margins and intersections. Her works for this exhibition are inspired by the Oudolf Field and countryside that surrounds Hauser & Wirth Somerset, following a series of research visits throughout the past year. A theme that threads through this new work is the delicate dependency between wildlife and organically occurring interactions between humans, wild and curated plants and their environments over time. By creating imaginary worlds, enlarging or miniaturising specific compositions, Spragg encourages deeper investigation into how plants behave and how their behaviour can help us reconsider our own approach to communities and landscape.
About Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset is a destination for contemporary making and the crafted object, committed to showcasing the best emerging and established makers both nationally and internationally. Make occupies two rooms of a Georgian townhouse on Bruton High Street with Jacqueline Moore as Director. Since its launch in 2018, the gallery has presented work by over fifty artist-makers, providing valuable insights into the working processes and rich narratives of their practices. There is an emphasis on pieces commissioned specifically for Make, some of which are created in response to Somerset and the South West, employing locally sourced materials. All works are for sale.
You can see my work in a few places this Autumn. I am pleased to be showing again with Gallery 57 in Arundel in a beautiful mixed show: Paper which will be running until 22 February. I also have some pieces in Lines Etcwith WhiteNoise Projects at One Paved Court until 10 November 2019. I am also happy to say that some of my work will be available from The New Craftsmen. Further updates soon…
Paper
2 November – 22 February
Private View 1st November 6 – 8pm
Works with and on paper, shown with ceramics.
Exhibiting artists: Frances Bloomfield, Susan Kinley, Bridget Johnson, Clare Pelan, Jane Ponsford, Dail Behennah, Jane Perryman, Helen Terry, Rhoda K Baker, Michelle Keegan, Tracey Bush, Diane Griffin and Jane Muende
23 October – 10 November 2019
Private View 24th October 2019
‘What do walking , weaving, observing, singing, storytelling, drawing and writing have in common ? The answer is that they all proceed along lines of one kind or another.’ Lines, A Brief History by Tim Ingold
Fold, 2018, Twisted and knotted handmade paper, stained with ink
1 Paved Court
Richmond
TW9 1LZ
The artists in this show all have one thing in common, they draw lines and it only takes a moment to recognise that lines are everywhere. How each artist presents the ‘Line’, offers a variety of interpretations. This exhibition offers an insight into their everyday processes ranging from how they contemplate, make decisions, use their tools and reflect upon their practice. Some engage with the architecture of a particular space within the gallery, whilst for others, the works chosen for the exhibition are autonomous and self-contained.
A WhiteNoise Projects exhibition curated by Hanna ten Doornkaat
Exhibiting artists: Lizzie Brewer, Julie Brixey-Williams, Tom Cartmill, Hanna ten Doornkaat, Buffy Kimm, Rachel Pearcey, Jane Ponsford, Richard Tomlin
The Lissome
I was pleased that our recent exhibition in Cambridge, The Everyday Has a Certain Strangeness, was the subject of a lovely article in The Lissome, an independent magazine based in Berlin with a mindful, sustainable ethos.
Words by Reeme Idris and photography by Genevieve Lutkin
If you are in Cambridge please join us during the opening day on Saturday 6 July
I am pleased to be showing in an exhibition in the tiny St Peter’s Church, next to Kettles Yard in Cambridge together with Alessandra Taccia, Sarah Kaye-Rodden, Yasuyo Harvey, Olivia Fiddes, Faye Milburn and Patrizia Sascor.
‘The Everyday has a certain strangeness’ is an independent art exhibition: a collective of seven artists from different backgrounds, using disparate media find common ground in the everyday. Set in the stillness of St Peter’s church (next to Kettle’s Yard house and gallery), the church functions as a graceful, imperfect white vessel for the artworks.’
Quoditian materials are evocative because of their everyday nature. We can all relate to them and summon up their feeling or scent so easily. They can be disposable; paper is so familiar that it’s often easy to forget that it is a precious material in its own right. Making paper by hand from cotton rag or other fibres reminds us of its value as a material very different from its mass-produced cousin.
I was inspired by the familiar mass of buttercups and other wild flowers outside St Peter’s Church and the simple flowers in the stained glass windows, to make work echoing this cool, green yellow by dyeing my paper with weld. Weld is one of our oldest dye-plants and would have been well known by the original users of the church. To me the colour is calm but joyful and appropriate to the beautiful simplicity of the building.
Other exhibitions coming up are:
9 – 15 September 2019 Past and Present Tense, The Crypt Gallery, London
22 October – 11 November 2019 Lines etc, One Paved Court, Richmond, London
Invitations and more information will be sent nearer the time but please save the dates.
This Summer is a busy one; I am working as one of ten artists on Surrey Unearthed,an eight-month landscape project set in the Surrey Hills, and I have work in some exhibitions and will be running a few workshops.
Surrey Unearthed
Surrey Unearthed is an Arts Council funded programme of installations, events and projects and has has been developed with artists who have a strong connection and curiosity for the Surrey landscape. These projects focus on the natural materials of the Surrey Hills landscape, their history and uses over time. The installations, art walks and community celebrations coincide with the Surrey Hills 60th year AONB designation.
For my project, Terrain, I will be walking, collecting materials, talking to people and making work across the whole area but particularly in Witley Common, Box Hill, Newlands Corner and Reigate Hill from June 2018 – April 2019. Most of my workshops during this period will be for specific groups but there will be some open to the public and I will post about them nearer the time though I am delighted to be able to say that I’ll be running an afternoon of papermaking at Leith Hill Place on Saturday 21 July 2.30 – 5pm as part of this project. Booking will be via the Leith Hill Place National Trust website.
Surrey Unearthed exhibition
Ten Surrey Unearthed projects in one place
6 – 22 July 2018
Leith Hill Place, Dorking, Surrey,
An exhibition showing the research and development of the Surrey Unearthed projects featuring maquette, sculpture, film and drawings at Leith Hill Place.
Leith Hill Place is a National Trust property. Charges apply: Adult £6 and Child £3
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Two Exhibitions
I am very pleased to be exhibiting at the lovely Gallery 57 in Arundel in their mixed Summer show, A contour, a curve – the lie of the land19 May – 27 August 2018. Thurs – Sat 10.30 – 5pm, Sun and Bank Holidays 12 – 5pm.
This shows some of the participating artists in A contour, a curve – the lie of the land. Top left, Jane Ponsford, top right, Louise Egedal, bottom left, Susan Laughton and finally, Carys Davies. Photo Gallery 57
I am also glad to have three pieces in the SFSA Drawing Open at no format Gallery.
Open Thurs to Sun 1 – 6.30pm 24 May – 3 June 2018
no format
Arch 29
Rolt Street
Deptford
London SE8 5JB
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West Dean Arts and Craft Festival 1 – 3 June 10am – 5pm
This year I am running a day of workshops on Friday 1 June as part of the brilliant West Dean Arts and Craft Festival. You can find out more here and book online.
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29th November 2 -5pm| Papermaking ‘In-Residence’ workshop at Arthouse1
2nd December 4 – 6pm| ‘Infinity’ Finissage
Its the last week of INFINITY which closes on Saturday 2nd December with a final event between 4 and 6pm. You are warmly invited to join fellow exhibitor Gemma Cossey, the curator Jane Boyer and me for a chat and a glass of fizz or a cup of tea on the final afternoon of the exhibition.
Before then on 29th November 2 – 5pm I will be setting up a small outpost of my studio in the gallery where I will be making paper towards a new work.
Please join me and find out more about my work and the processes underlying it and make some paper to take home or to contribute to the new piece of work.
ARTHOUSE 1
45 Grange Road
London
SE1 3BH
Open Thursday – Sunday 3 – 7pm or by appointment 077131 89249
I am delighted to be taking part in a two person exhibition with painter Gemma Cossey at Arthouse 1 in November. The exhibition starts on 8 November and runs until 2 December with a PRIVATE VIEW on 7 November 6.30pm – 8.30pm. Infinity is curated by Jane Boyer,
“For artists Gemma Cossey and Jane Ponsford, the concept of infinity is a consequence of rules, parameters, and processes. The tension between planning and serendipity, compulsion and meditation are at the heart of the work. Both Gemma and Jane work through a visible compulsive repetitiveness to arrive at an unanticipated serene fusion of elements.”
PRIVATE VIEW Tuesday 7 November 6.30pm – 8.30pm
EXHIBITION OPEN FROM 8 November – 2 November 2017
ARTHOUSE 1
45 Grange Road
London
SE1 3BH
Open Thursday – Sunday 3 – 7pm or by appointment 077131 89249
Jane Ponsford 