Clarissa Galliano | Formations

About

Solo show of contemporary botanical drawings by Clarissa Galliano with mixed media jewellery and sculpture by Zoe Arnold and Suzanne Potter. 

CLARISSA GALLIANO specialises in large scale charcoal botanical drawings.  Her captivating observations of British flora celebrate the intricacies of natural structure and form.  These botanical ‘portraits’ seem to explore and explode the abstract qualities of plants with a very sculptural approach. The single stems or flower groups are presented to the viewer in a suspended form so we are confronted with their inner workings, faults and folds.  Their monumentality gives them a commanding presence yet they also preserve a certain surprise and intimacy, like a giant pressed stem revealed from between a press.

The show will feature a selection of Clarissa's large single stem drawings and large botanical drawings. 

A catalogue of drawings will be available to order in digital or printed form and a box of postcards available to buy. 

The accompanying pieces of jewellery relate to the theme of abstracted botanical elements and provide interesting cross disciplinary dialogues. 

ZOE ARNOLD studied jewellery design at Central Saint Martins in London, graduating with a first class Honours degree in 2003, and has gone on to establish herself as an independent artist jeweller. Her pieces are in many prestigious collections, including the Crafts Council and the V&A.

Known for their individuality and wit, her works are made with a varied use of materials and techniques, a love of fine craftsmanship and traditional hand skills, combined with storytelling and poetic imagery.

SUZANNE POTTER creates by hand, working intuitively, mixing flat shapes with constructed hollow forms, based on simple geometry and graphic, minimal aesthetics. By arranging and rearranging such building blocks, she formulates wearable, sculptural jewellery, displaying a visual language of circles, lines, related forms, voids and solids. These designs echo each other, and refer to the parallel worlds of biology and botany – connections, vessels, cells, seeds, reflections, and shadows.