A new exhibition by Lancaster-based artist Paul Mason opens at the University of Cumbria’s Alexandra Gallery on the Lancaster campus today (Thursday 24th June), celebrating two decades of artistic work.
Entitled ‘Recurrent Enquiry’, it’s a retrospective exhibition which looks at the artist’s development over the last 20 years, consistently running through this is an involvement with fired clay, printmaking and other ceramic processes. The work is influenced by artists totally outside contemporary ceramics with Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell, Kurt Schwitters, Eduardo Paolozzi and Peter Blake being important references.
Paul has exhibited internationally and won a number of awards for his work. His art is also part of collections in the USA, Croatia and Hungary.
“The underlying concern is with the contrast and visual equivalence which exists between natural forms and manufactured forms,” he says. “In the earlier work there is a constant reference to objects which were either designed, or evolved to perform specific functions. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, containers that were built to house scientific, natural history and mathematical instruments provide the source material for how the work is assembled and exhibited.
“The technology of warfare has been a key element which has consistently been revisited in the work, in particular the First World War and the ferocity, futility and the melancholy it evokes.”
• The free exhibition, which will be open weekdays 9.30am-4.30pm, runs from Thursday 24 June until Monday 19 July.