Memory Landscape : Aneta Regel

It is with great pleasure that Sarah Myerscough Gallery introduces the first solo UK exhibition of acclaimed experimental ceramicist Aneta Regel. The exhibition is open from 28 April - 10 June 2023.

Aneta’s abstract ceramic sculptures express themes of memory and the passage of time, displacement, nostalgia for a family home and her childhood landscapes populated by the creatures of Polish folklore. Her totemic objects are crafted from multiple layers of stoneware, porcelain and foraged volcanic rock inclusions. They are repeatedly dried and re-fired, telling a story of constant metamorphosis, of conflict and change, pushing the materials to their limits in the kiln, testing their malleability and density, strengths and weaknesses.

This new body of work pulls together the key forms that have concerned Aneta through her decades long and illustrious career. Her Pien sculptures (from the Polish for the trunk or stem of a tree) map out a mystical and strange landscape. These towering balustrades of dendroid rock and clay are ancient and uncanny, petrified trees imbued with energy, mystery and - one senses - movement. Negotiating through this preternatural world of her making, we must be wary of seduction by the prehistoric, faceless creatures creeping between the boughs. These amorphous beasts are animistic yet mineral. They are coated in thick glazes with hues of blooming lichen, luminous fungi, moss and strata; as if they have stood still long enough to be enveloped by the woodland, but may yet, any second, stir back to life.

Within this landscape of trees and beasts sit Aneta’s Raining Stone Vessels, emerging like the forgotten remains of rituals that archaeologists can only guess at. These bowls are welcoming objects, inviting usage, but cracked and frayed, as if by the passage of time. They hint at purposes both domestic and wild - they could hold the much needed sustenance offered to a stranger, or esoteric herbs, baneful or benign.

Aneta’s work is darkly whimsical, nostalgic and strange, it plunges us into a wondrous Grimm world where the trees are rocks and the rocks are alive.

Memory Landscape: Aneta Regel