Words from the Gallery
From the glint in Medussa’s eye, to the ravaged horn of a Sioux Indian Chief, the haunting beauty of Ian Palmer’s Raku statues and water features resonate deep within.
Ian’s creations open for us non-exstent worlds; worlds of mythology and magic, of history and legend. Each meticulously shaped by the hands of a master at peace with his art, an artist always striving for the next creation.
Background
Growing up among the ironworks and steel mills of the Black Country, Ian began sculpting in metal in his early teens. Later leaving the industrial wasteland for the bright skies of southern Spain, where he lived for over 20 years, where he developed a love of olive wood, and has been joining wood and metal ever since. The trinity of materials is completed by clay, in the shape of Raku, which with its metallic glazes and home-built kilns of all shapes and sizes brings Ian full circle to the foundries of youth.
Raku ceramics, metal and wood – together allow Ian to explore the relationship between the man-made and nature, chance and intention.
Ian painstakingly combines heat-coloured copper or steel and the natural graining of old English elm, oak and yew with the chance outcomes of the raku glaze. Working in raku permits and working with self made kilns takes Ian’s ceramic sculpting to experimental places and dimensional limits. The unpredictable nature of raku informs the eventual hard-won order of a finished piece.
Key Dates, Accreditations & Publications
Selected Recent Exhibitions:
2019 – Melbourne Arts Festival Art & Architecture Trail, Derbyshire, UK
2018 – Wirksworth Festival Art & Architecture Trail, Derbyshire, UK
2018 – Melbourne Arts Festival Art & Architecture Trail, Derbyshire, UK
2017 – Melbourne Arts Festival Art & Architecture Trail, Derbyshire, UK
2016 – Group Exhibition, St. John Street Gallery, Ashbourne, UK
2015 – Group Exhibition, Regent Gallery, Stourbridge, UK
2014 – The Museum Belongs To All, Kunsthaus Berlin, Marbella, Spain
2014 – Passion in Art Exhibition, National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS), Benahavis, Spain
2013 – Kinsale Arts Festival, Susan Harris Gallery, Kinsale, Ireland
2013 – Finalist, VI Ramon Portillo Art Contest, Motril, Spain
2013 – Solo Exhibition, Gallery Nestor Plada, Estepona, Spain
Works held in private collections in Spain, Ireland, Germany, France, the US and the UK
