Working solely in porcelain, Kneebone produces large scale yet delicately crafted figurative scenes drawn from ancient Greek and Roman myths.
New sculptures
For its inaugural exhibition, new contemporary gallery Madder Rose is pleased to present a body of new sculptures by Royal College graduate Rachel Kneebone.
Working solely in porcelain, Kneebone produces large scale yet delicately crafted figurative scenes drawn from ancient Greek and Roman myths in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and other classical cycles.
Hybrid male and female figures are either emerging from or being consumed by plant-like tendrils, creating a writhing sprawl of contorted bodies and organic matter. Erotic yet sensual, flamboyant yet discreet; there is an inherent ambivalence in these works that delights us and continues to hold our attention. A dark and brooding sense of death and putrefaction hovers over these Bacchanalian dances, frozen as they are in this seductive and lustrous material.
Lynch Architects, currently holders of the Young Architects of the Year award, have developed the gallery from two early Georgian houses, producing a variety of dramatic split-level spaces in a highly innovative and novel design. As part of The London Architecture Biennial, the gallery will be open throughout the weekend of 24/25 June and will host a talk given by the architects at 3 pm on Saturday 24th.
Rachel Kneebone has exhibited recently at: ‘The Way We Work Now’, Camden Arts Centre, London (2005); ‘Young Masters’, St. John Street, London (2005); ‘Arrivals’, Pump House Gallery, London (2004). A graduate of the Royal College of Art (2004), Kneebone was shortlisted for the MaxMara prize 2005, and was commissioned by Mario Testino to make works for an ongoing exhibition at Kensington Palace, London.
Madder Rose Gallery
139 Whitecross Street - London