Hales is delighted to announce the opening of Richard Slee: Sunlit Uplands and Withdrawing Rooms at The Holburne Museum (25 September - 10 January 2027), bringing together major works from recent years by one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary ceramic artists.
Sunlit Uplands (2021) takes its name from a trope beloved of certain political figures: Winston Churchill, who used it in his famous “We shall fight on the beaches” speech, given in 1940 to inspire the population during the Battle of Britain and, most recently, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who appropriated it to describe a vision of post-Brexit Britain. The installation presents an archipelago of more than 400 individual, meticulously crafted ceramic islands in the centre of the Ballroom. With their references to idyllic landscapes, these high-gloss, brightly coloured ceramics evoke the idealism of the politicised phrase and its inherent artifice.
In the second part of the exhibition, titled Withdrawing Rooms, new and recent works offer a contemporary twist on the concept of interior and exterior. Slee presents numerous examples of an on-going series of picture frames, as well as a pair of oversize ceramic candlesticks, a clock, and six ceramic swans. Slee playfully highlights that there are layers of meaning behind even the most ordinary action.
Click here for The Holburne Museum website.
