Dirty Works Part One presents a diverse range of ceramic works, from sculpture to video, which push the boundaries of the medium in a subversive way. The visceral characteristics of the clay catch the work in a state of flux, or in a state of shed or metamorphosis. The ambiguous nature of the work allows the viewer to decipher forms that seem part alien, animal or vegetable. The artists play with the base materiality of clay in a direct, sensual and often humorous way.

In Portraits of a Marriage the Holburne presents, for the very first time, ten sculptures which depict – in characteristically entertaining, abstract but honest form – Nicholas Pope and his wife at different stages of their life together during more than 40 years of marriage. The series began in 1978 with Mr and Mrs Arnolfini and culminated last year (2020) with Mr and Mrs Pope Dead and Buried, which was made in the shadow of the late Janet Pope’s terminal cancer. The exhibition encapsulates Nicholas Pope’s personal development over five decades, exploring a variety of psychological states and the nature of his relationship with Janet in sculptures of wood, metal, glass, ceramic and shrunken wool. Many of the sculptures have a related drawing, which will be displayed alongside the corresponding sculpture.

Venue – New art centre
Dates – 14th May – 30th August 2021

Including sculpture, woodcuts and ceramics representing his experimental, process-driven and materially-focused approach, the show exemplifies the breadth of his work from the late 1970s to the present day. Brought together for the first time, these works communicate Pope’s comic yet deeply contemplative take on the fundamental aspects of what it means to be human.
Heavenly Space coincides with two other exhibitions of Pope’s work in the UK; at the Holburne Museum, Bath, and The Sunday Painter, London, the three concurrent exhibitions together offer an unprecedented overview of his unique contribution to sculpture. Pope (b. 1949, Sydney, Australia) represented Britain at the 1980 Venice Biennale, and previously showed at the New Art Centre in 2013.

Venue – The Sunday Painter
Dates – 14th May – 19th June 2021

Take off coincides with two other major exhibitions of Pope’s work: Portraits of a marriage at the Holburne Museum, Bath and Heavenly Space at the New Art Centre, Salisbury.

Alongside Pope’s series of ‘helmet’ sculptures and drawings from 80’s and 90’s this exhibition focuses on a recently completed body of work and its engagement with a new medium. This new medium is deep pile carpet which lends itself to the wobbly colourful drawings that are always the starting point for anything that Pope creates.

Venue – Lightbox
Dates – Thursday 7 July 2014 – Sunday 25 September 2014

Ten Big Words – lie kill love steal envy rest cheat fear obey honour.

Like that of many of his peers who emerged in the 1970s, who were preoccupied with finding a new and distinctive sculptural language, Nicholas Pope’s work marked a disassociation from an earlier generation and he began to be known for using mainly natural materials, which he carved, or more simply, stacked and assembled.

Following his 1980 exhibition representing Britain at the Venice Biennale, Pope visited Zimbabwe and Tanzania: an experience that affected the rest of his life and twisted his artistic practice completely.

In a move towards softer, more malleable materials such as glass, porcelain, textiles, moulded aluminium and ceramics, Pope began to make abstract works that reference complicated themes of spirituality, suicide and society.

Ten Big Words – lie kill love steal envy rest cheat fear obey honour, is part of Sticky Intimacy – a group exhibition featuring Katie Cuddon, Emma Hart and Nicholas Pope.

Making It

Fragile?