Nick Renshaw - Visual Artist

This series of early figure portraits was exhibited initially as a solo presentation at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem before being installed for the large group exhibition Brandend Zand at Museum Beelden Aan Zee in Scheveningen. These ceramic works were made with a combination of mold-making and hand-building processes as well as a range of glaze and surface techniques. Utilising a relatively small number of modular forms for limbs and bodies a diverse range of figures was generated. The intrinsically composite nature of the sculptures coupled with a variable application of surface treatments produced a series of characters portraying an assortment of idiosyncracies. They depict individuals with specific traits which together form a related and complemtentary group. These figures used contrasting qualities to provide the possibility for each to be understood with the necessary degree of interpretation. The works are small enough to be seen as puppets though the ceramic medium is also suggestive perhaps of more ancient, mumified figures.