NICHOLAS LEES at Artmonte-carlo
Grimaldi Forum, Monaco: 30th April - 1st May 2016.
Showing with Taste Contemporary Craft for the first time at artmonte-carlo, Nicholas Lees' striking and precise vessels play with line and shadow. His work pushes the threshold of manipulating clay and representation of three-dimensionality to new possibilities by blending porcelain, space, light and curiosity.
To exhibit Nicholas Lees' work we have created an illuminated vitrine.
Our collaboration with Nick provides a controlled environment in which to displays these beautiful vessels. Surfaces and edges are revealed or melt as one's viewpoint changes creating an endless animated effect.
I love visiting studios, workshops and factories, it was a thrill to be invited to Nick's studio in Hampshire. An understanding of the process of making informs most of my own studio's work. I find objects have more meaning when one understands the story of how they have come to be.
Each piece begins with clay on the wheel. Vessels are thrown and lathe turned to perfection by hand, it is a painstaking process that requires great patience and skill. Working to the limits of the material with multiple stages of production means there is significant risk and successful outcomes are not guaranteed. The last photo below shows some of the pieces that tragically didn't make it, awaiting recycling.
Nicholas Lees’ work has been exhibited widely in the UK and overseas and is held in private and public collections including York City Art Gallery, Westerwald Keramikmuseum in Germany and Royal Caribbean International. He has won several awards including 3rd prize at the Premio Faenza (Italy) in 2003, the National Sculpture Award from the Bluecoat Display Centre in Liverpool in 2010 and the Desmond Preston Prize for Excellence in Drawing at the RCA in 2012. He worked as a Senior Lecturer at Bath Spa University between 2000 and 2010 and as a Visiting Lecturer since 2010. He also works as a visiting lecturer at the RCA and UCA Farnham.