Artists

Gabriele Beveridge, Christina Mackie, Anderson Borba, LR Vandy, Candida Powell-Williams, Holly Hendry

Press release

Pangaea Sculptors' Centre is proud to bring together a group exhibition that considers colour as a material. Developed from a dialogue between artist Candida Powell-Williams and curator Elizabeth Neilson, this iteration is imagined as the pilot for a series of exhibitions foregrounding the rare power of colour as a multi-dimensional material and fulfilling Pangaea’s aim to advocate and platform sculptural practices. 

“Colour in these works is rooted in the hand where it is found and reshaped, it is dug up, unearthed, it is sprinkled on or mixed in, it is heated, melted and moulded, daubed on or carved out. One colour pierces another, ties together, resists its neighbour or filters the light and space around it. In these active ways colour becomes material- alive, changing and transporting. These are a collection of works where the subject is not rooted in colour, but its use is part of a layered approach within a complex material language”. – Candida Powell-Williams 

Chromatic Hands brings together a group of works that are aware of life's turmoil and attempt to still it for a moment with a punctuation of reflection. Neither real nor fake, colour is its own substance in the hands of these artists whose creations populate the walls and floor of the gallery. Form, process and intent are inseparable, these are sculptures that speak to the reciprocal nature of bodies and objects - altars, tokens and medallions – handmade items that imply reproducibility and seriality yet are distinctly unique.  

Xxijra Hii is delighted to continue its annual collaboration, inviting artist-led platforms without a permanent physical space to take over our London gallery. Each residency brings an exhibition and a programme of events that engages our community with their practice and mission. The Pangaea residency follows previous collaborations with Gertrude Art, Turps Painting School, and 3DCXP. 

Artist bios:

Anderson Borba b. 1972, Santos, BR, lives and works in London, UK and Sao Paolo, BR 

Working predominantly in hand carved wood and collage Borba’s forms have undulating surfaces that reveal themselves as constructed from the images that saturate our lives. Here colour is applied, abrased and altered from printed magazine cut outs, coalescing into patterns that seem to emerge from within the forms, a painstaking repetitive approach that honours ritualistic rather than inspiration-based practices.  

Gabriele Beveridge b. 1985, Hong Kong, lives and works in London, UK. 

Working with industrial processes and forms, Beveridge’s recent experiments with handblown glass and synthetic hair mobilise colour as a material force rather than a symbolic device, intensifying sensory perception and registering states of transformation. Her palette of soft pastels, iridescent hues and translucent layering evoke membranes, veins or semi-permeable skins. These chromatic decisions function metaphysically, drawing attention to thresholds between organic and synthetic, interior and exterior; probing how desire, identity and corporeality emerge through stressed material and speculative processes. 

Holly Hendry  b. 1990, London, lives and works in London, UK. 

Using a handmade, often cartoon vernacular Hendry creates sculptural vignettes that give physical shape to what is usually hidden beneath a surface. Exhibited here is a new work made whilst on residency at Casa Wabi in Mexico and is rendered in the natural colours of the earth and landscape. This shift from her often synthetic colour use to a more terrestrial palette is less a departure than a recalibration, bringing her ongoing interest in bodily interiority into close alignment with place. Clay acts like leather, paper or fabric, stitched and nailed to the wall, a nose is emerging from the material, impotently sniffing the air from the earth. 

Christina Mackie b. 1956, Oxford, UK, lives and works in London, UK.  

In Christina Mackie’s hands colour is a dynamic material, she often combines brilliant pigments with found objects and architectural supports. In these Token works a subtle synthesis emerges between the clay and glazes extracted from the earth and the synthetic materials which wrap, tie, embellish and suspend the pieces.  Muted natural tones and saturated hues allude to provisional systems that suggest exchange, value and the fragility of material experimentation in contemporary sculptural practice. 

Candida Powell-Williams b. 1984, London, UK, lives and works in London, UK.  Colour for Powell-Williams is an active agent, the vivid tones of her work undermine their sincerity, asking us to relax into their presence. Often creating objects that emerge from sites of mystical rituals and transformative experiences and are shaped by the carnivalesque and grotesque. Her colour schemes of bright colours sometimes function symbolically and at other times generates disruption or psychedelic intensity.LR Vandy b. 1958, Coventry UK, lives and works in London, UK. 

LR Vandy has a finely attuned awareness to the constructed objects that dominate public space both physically and visually. Often employing salvaged materials, Vandy draws our attention via the saturated colours of objects that reference both maritime histories and Black diasporic experience. References to sea voyages, memory, and pain are present, as is a space of hope, reflection and defiance.  

About the collaborators:

Pangaea Sculptors' Centre was founded by artist Lucy Tomlins in 2013 and is an artist-led non-profit CIC that supports the making and advancement of sculpture in the UK and internationally. Based in Coventry, London and Warwickshire, Pangaea’s three pillars are Fabricate, Educate and Advocate. Elizabeth Neilson is a curator based in London, she has been a supporter of Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre since its inception and on the board of Directors since 2018. She is also Director of the Zabludowicz Collection. Candida Powell-Williams is an artist working in sculpture, performance and installation. 

Xxijra Hii is an independent gallery based in London who advocate for emerging and re-emerging artists countering the mainstream and support outlier modes of thinking, practice and collaboration. The gallery commits to an annual programme of exhibitions and events at our London space whilst participating in fairs and collaborations internationally. ‍ 

Thank you to the artists and their galleries: The Approach, Herald Street, October Gallery, Seventeen and Stephen Friedman Gallery. 

Thank you to the Greater London Authority for your support.