Andrew Sabin. Colouring the Void

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It is an appropriately domestic setting for these new works, since to make them Sabin has used some surprisingly everyday materials - such as sugar and margarine - which he has scooped and scraped by hand to make moulds into which he then pours resin. This process appeals to the artist as it allows him to make sculpture quickly and spontaneously, allowing him to experiment instinctively with shapes and forms; literally feeling his way through matter. The results are diverse, textured, brightly coloured, delightfully engaging and humorous. And because the materials he has used are readily available, the effects are really only limited by the bounds of his creativity and imagination.

For nearly twenty years Andrew Sabin has been preoccupied with either large indoor installations, such as 'The Open Sea', or significant public projects at Grizedale, Canary Wharf and 'Coldstones Cut', a monumental and award-winning work above Nidderdale in Yorkshire. This current exhibition therefore returns wider attention to Sabin's studio-based practice, which has always continued but has perhaps been overshadowed by his larger, more spectacular ventures. However, on whatever scale he chooses to work, Sabin has always maintained an interest in the fundamental qualities of matter, the possibilities and limitations of materials whether they be wood, steel or ceramic, and this interest, as Jes Fernie has noted, 'is employed to make work which is formally, intellectually and often physically challenging' (2003).