Metamorphosis: Johnny Vegas and Emma Rodgers at the Walker

About

Actor and comedian Johnny Vegas has a degree in Art and Ceramics. Three decades after he graduated, he returned to the studio after a chance meeting with local sculptor Emma Rodgers. They have made new work with bronze, clay and 3D printing, shown alongside the historic objects that inspired them.

Their display explores the idea of metamorphosis, meaning a mental or physical transformation. A common theme is transformation through flight. In Emma’s work, tragic mythical figure Icarus is transformed through the wings his father made for him. Johnny shows a fragile female figure breaking free from her fears through flight.

Emma Rodgers is known world-wide for sculptures that capture the essence of the subject. Among her public commissions in Liverpool, she made the statue of Cilla Black in Matthew Street and created the world’s largest Liver Bird.

After training in ceramics, St Helens based Johnny Vegas found that “life got in the way” and art became “an unfinished part of my story”. He recently rediscovered his artistic talent, saying that flight, faith and fear of failure are subjects currently most fluent in his work.