LONDON.- Erskine, Hall & Coe hosts the first exhibition of Matt Wedel’s work in Europe. This exhibition will feature twenty-five ceramic sculptures, the majority of which were made specifically for this show.

Born in Palisade, Colorado in 1983, Wedel first began working with clay at the age of two under the guidance of his father, a functional ceramicist, and his passion for making sculpture developed. He studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and then at California State University, where he would later teach. Wedel has also taught at several other institutions, including Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.

Wedel’s sculptures focus on agricultural, botanical and humanitarian themes, expressed through an exceptional vibrancy, impressive physical scale and bold use of colour. The exhibition explores the form of the ‘Flower Tree’ in great depth, and of which Wedel has said:

“The flower works seem burdened by their colour. It is a form with peace holding itself with clarity amongst a weight or burden.”

Tony Marsh, ceramic artist and head of the ceramic program at California State University in Long Beach, has noted: “While his botanical forms are related to what we know about plants and flowers, they, like the figural works, are large and fluid with simple but powerfully saturated ceramic color, some as though soaked and dripping with a surreal nectar. But unlike the figuration, many of these floral forms are intensely detailed and suggest that they come from places that we do not know. They are in many respects otherworldly, the powerful products of imagination and desire.”

The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, the Long Beach Museum of Art and Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery are among the several institutions that have acquired Wedel’s work.

The exhibition at Erskine, Hall & Coe is illustrated online and in a catalogue.