This major exhibition by Halima Cassell celebrates her work as one of Britain's leading contemporary sculptors. Bringing together objects from the artist's own collection - a number of which are rarely on public display - with new work created for the exhibition, this is the first solo exhibition by a contemporary artist to be shown at Watts Gallery.
The exhibition will explore Cassell's evolving practice over the past 25 years and will include a piece specially commissioned by the Watts Gallery, made with local Compton clay. The artwork takes inspiration from the work of both G F and Mary Watts and is the first acquisition by a living artist to join the Watts Gallery Trust collection. Halima Cassell MBE (b.1975-) was born in Kashmir, Pakistan, grew up in Lancashire and now lives in Shropshire. A fusion of cultural environments has shaped her identity and underpins her practice. Her work explores what connects us rather than what divides us, finding expression for this in complex surface patterns created through deep carving into unglazed ceramic, marble, wood and more.
Introduced recently to Watts Gallery - Artists' Village, Cassell is drawn to the practice of the founding artists, in particular to the life and career of Mary Watts. Cassell identifies much of her own practice with Mary’s: in her choice to work in clay, her choice to create intricate patterns inspired by nature, her shared interest in diverse cultural influences that characterise both their work and in an enduring fascination with architecture which, for Mary Watts, culminated in her creation of Watts Chapel (1895-1898) – the extraordinary Arts & Crafts mortuary chapel, now Grade I listed, conceived as a community arts project and built using Compton clay.
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