Free exhibition of abstract expressionist paintings by Liz Gascoigne and hand-built ceramics by Vivien Shelton, exploring what lies beneath the surface.
Liz Gascoigne and Vivien Shelton are showing together at The North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford, with their exhibition Unearthed running from 21 October to 7 November. The opening is on Friday 23 October, 6–8pm, and the gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.
It's a pairing of two artists whose work both start with what's beneath the surface. Gascoigne is an abstract expressionist who builds her paintings through layering and mixed media. She doesn't start with a fixed intention, letting the process lead the way; the results can settle into abstract landscapes or pull in elements of realism, like figures, sculpted shapes and vegetal imagery. Shelton is a ceramicist working from a small garden workshop in central Oxford, making everything by hand using ancient techniques like pinching, coiling and slab building, and working within a limited colour palette.
Seeing them together makes sense when you look at how they both approach their materials. Gascoigne's layering is about what gets buried and what stays visible, and Shelton's hand-built ceramics are about the slow, physical process of shaping clay from the ground up. Both are grounded in exploration, and both let the making itself dictate where the work ends up.
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Unearthed is in the gallery at The North Wall Arts Centre, South Parade, Oxford OX2 7JN. Entry is free, and it runs until 7 November, so you've got a few weeks to catch it if you can't make the opening night.
