Marcelle Joseph Projects is delighted to present Sculpture Al Fresco, its third exhibition of contemporary art this year and its first outdoor sculpture exhibition. This exhibition is a first of its kind in many ways - it is the first outdoor selling exhibition in the UK to examine British sculpture of the twenty-first century this year and the first ever contemporary sculpture show to take place in the gardens of Great Fosters Hotel, a former royal hunting lodge dating back to 1550 AD.
This show focussing on recent British sculpture by nine emerging to established contemporary artists represents a unique view of the development of British sculpture right now and includes some of the most original sculptors working today. Sculpture Al Fresco takes a fresh approach, placing 13 sculptural works made over the last two years against the backdrop of a 450 year old stately home and one of the finest Arts and Crafts gardens in all of Europe, originally designed in the 1920s. This juxtaposition encourages the public to engage with these works in new and different ways, allowing them to make new connections and highlighting what is best about British sculpture today.
To explore the meaning of "British sculpture" and what make these works British, these contemporary works should be seen against the history of modern British sculpture. In this exhibition, among the artists, we have Richard Hudson, a figurative sculptor inspired by the likes of Henry Moore, Richard Trupp, a former assistant of Anthony Caro who like his mentor works in steel, Alexander Hoda, whose work on display is based on a Ralph Brown sculpture in Harlow, and Giles Kent who works exclusively in wood and has become the modern-day version of David Nash. Although cutting new swathes in the sculpture arena, these artists are very much inspired by their forebears and bring a sense of Britishness to their practice. Even Nikolai Winter, the only non-British artist in the show, takes inspiration for the super-slick surface of his sculptures from Anish Kapoor, an Indian sculptor who has adopted the UK as his homeland.
