The gallery is being suffused with the aroma of freshly carved wood thanks to an exclusive new series of sculptural wooden works by creative duo Malcolm Martin and Gaynor Dowling. Recently arrived from their workshop in the Cotswolds, where they have been working collaboratively since 1997, their new works are a celebration of the inherent beauty of wood.
The hand of the artists is visible in all of the duo's work, whose monolithic sculptural disks and bottles expose the natural grain of oak through hand-carving. Their new series of limed and scorched oak vessels play with shape, combining the man-made forms of bottles, vases and flasks, while their carving riffs on naturally occuring patterns to evoke waves and light-rays in totemic and monumental forms.
Working with a pared-back colour scheme of pale limed oak and the black of scorched wood, Martin and Dowling allow the subtle colour variations of oak to shine through their sculptures. The velvety edges of hand-carved ridges allude to prehistoric fossils and ancient monolithic constructions, while retaining a timelessly contemporary look which brings a warm, organic atmosphere to any space.
