Woodwork: A Family Tree of Sculpture
29 March - 29 March 2020
(Image credit: Barbara Hepworth [1903-75] Configuration (Phira) 1955, Scented Guarea wood. Courtesy Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds Art Fund and Barbara Hepworth Estate)
Part of the
Yorkshire Sculpture International festival, Woodwork: A Family Tree of Sculpture explores the idea that wood is the most human of materials, as it crosses cultures and time with its plasticity, portability and durability.
Drawing from our collections, discover works of British sculpture alongside objects from Africa, India, China and Myanmar from our world cultures collection. This marks the first time these two collections have been displayed together at Leeds Art Gallery.
The exhibition invites audiences to consider the relationship between maker and material, as sculptures usually defined as inherently British reveal their connections to the wider world through the wood from which they were carved.
Glen Onwin
From 1 February
(Image credit: As Above So Below Glen Onwin: installation at the Square Chapel, Halifax 1991. Copyright Glen Onwin; photograph by Jerry Hardman-Jones. (courtesy: Henry Moore Institute))
Glen Onwin is an artist who makes sculpture from the very stuff of landscape, questioning and transforming substance and space with a set of co-ordinates that includes scientific investigation and painting. Onwin trained at Edinburgh College of Art and his work explores the subject of natural decay and decomposition, incorporating natural objects such as leaves, sulphur, coal and salt.
In 1991/1992 he created a legendary installation, through the agency of the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, which transformed the late 18th century Square Chapel in Halifax when it was a derelict building scheduled for development. A major gift to the galleries collection, this exhibition revisits earlier projects made in his native Scotland.
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