It’s eight years since the appearance of Sir Peter Blake, aka the ‘Godfather of British pop art’, at the opening of Porthminster Gallery’s 2016 exhibition of his works. It is apt, then, that the gallery is curating an exclusive selling show of his complete Venice Suite of 20 signed silkscreen prints.
A numbered print of Fishing, from Sir Peter Blake’s Venice Suite
In these works, Blake combines traditional images of the city on the lagoon with visual excerpts from vintage children’s books, photographs, and postcards, as well as details from works of the old masters. The visual witticism is teamed with a palette of turquoise, gold, and the grey of the stones of Venice to create a surreal fairy tale vision of the city.
Blake juxtaposes the baroque grandeur of the architectural icons of Venice with giant penguins, wartime bombers, Edwardian rowers, and icebergs, to name just a few.
The exhibition, which runs at Porthminster Gallery, on Fore Street, St Ives, from 14th September until 12th October, will also feature new sculptural ceramics by Dylan Bowen.
Plate 2024, by Dylan Bowen
His hand-made, slip-decorated sculptural vessels use both traditional and contemporary materials and techniques. He works on a small but ever-changing range of thrown plates, carved forms, and distorted jugs. The coloured slips are applied by pouring, trailing, and brushing.
Bowen’s work has its roots in traditional slipware but with many contemporary influences. He aims to capture some of the dynamism and action of the making process in the finished work. Dylan lives and works in Oxfordshire and is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association. He has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad.
