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Martin and Dowling

Black and White Vessel
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Black and White Vessel

limed and scorched oak
32 x 32 x 6cm
Ellipse

Ellipse

limed and scorched oak
33 x 43 x 6cm
£1200
Hatched Flask

Hatched Flask

limed and scorched oak
50 x 17 x 6cm
£950
Lias Vessel

Lias Vessel

limed and scorched oak
44 x 15 x 6cm
£795
Radial Disc

Radial Disc

limed and scorched oak
33 x 33 x 7cm
£950
Ribbed Bottle I

Ribbed Bottle I

limed and scorched oak
41 x 17 x 7cm
£795
Ribbed Bottle II

Ribbed Bottle II

limed and scorched oak
34 x 9 x 7cm
£595
Ribbed Flask

Ribbed Flask

limed and scorched oak
44 x 16 x 7cm
£1100
Striation

Striation

limed and scorched oak
46 x 26 x 7cm
£1100

“What all our sculpture shares is the central role of the hand and of hand tools in carving. Working in wood, we use simple frontal forms, organic rather than geometric, whose surfaces articulate the different kinds of mark-making traced out by our gouges. Many of our pieces take the form of abstract vessels, exploiting the ambivalence of shapes and textures at once echoing landscape and geology, the fossil record, and traditional ceramics and their decoration.

We use mainly oak, enjoying the resistance of the strongly marked grain, accentuated by being limed white and the flame-scorching of the ridges between gouge marks, adding an element of ‘drawing’ to the already complex surfaces. We work on different bodies of work — ‘families’ — at the same time, where each piece, while unique, shares a ‘family resemblance’ with the other pieces in the evolving series.

We have collaborated now for decades, working together on every aspect of the making process. We are often asked ‘yes, but how does this actually work?’ The answer is that we have come to think of the work itself as the ‘third partner’ in our team, telling us what to do next, as one piece suggests how the following one will be ‘the same but different’.”

Malcolm Martin and Gaynor Dowling have worked together making sculpture in wood since 1997, and in this time have produced landscape installations, public artworks and design projects alongside the sculptural vessels for which they are primarily known. Having lived and worked together in Stroud since 1997, in 2021 they moved house ‘over the hill’ to the city of Gloucester itself, while continuing to work in their studio in one of Stroud’s historic mills.

Their work has been exhibited extensively, including a solo exhibition in Seattle and in numerous solo shows throughout the UK. In addition to being in private collections around the world, their sculpture is also held in major public collections in the UK and USA, including –

Philadelphia Museum of Art USA
Wornick Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston USA
The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia USA
Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, USA
Crafts Council, London UK
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK
Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art
Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery UK
Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield UK
Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead UK
Bressler Collection, Maryland USA
Waterbury Collection, Minneapolis USA

Cornwall Contemporary

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