Ursula Morley-Price

Ann Van Hoey

Dialogue en osmose – Osmotic dialogue

23 February – 11 April 2019

As a prelude to the show that will bring them together later this year at the Maison des Arts in Chatillon (92), we present recent works by two of the Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste’s artists who each draw from a common inspiration of Japanese Folding paper a very distinct but equally bold formal expression and style, for which they are renowned.

Ursula Morley-Price Ann Van Hoey. Ceramics 2019. Photo Enguerran Ouvray for the Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste

Since their last solo exhibitions at the Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, respectively in 2016 and 2017, Ursula Morley-Price and Ann Van Hoey have continuously allowed their work to evolve without losing any of what makes them unique. Over the course of time, both have shaped and developed an immediately recognizable style from which they do not stray. The first produces stoneware pieces with open, flared forms extended by delicate blades that emanate and spread out from the main body of the structure. The second pursues her work of cutting, incising and folding clay slabs, giving birth to a range of very design objects inspired from simple forms such as hemispheres, triangles or squares.

Mutual stimulation

Ursula Morley-Price and Ann Van Hoey wished to present unreleased works created especially for this exhibition. “I started working on it last September, after completing a project for Puls Contemporary Ceramics gallery in Brussels, the first artist explains. Ever since my November 2017 show at the McKenzie Fine Art gallery in New York, I have taken an interest in new forms, inspired by the silhouette of a parasol. I also created a work entitled Cathedral, which is more architectural.”

As for Ann Van Hoey, she has in the last few months tried her hand at smaller scale objects after being selected by the International Academy of Ceramics to take part in the first Treasure Bowl collection. “Stoneware was new to me, being more used to earthenware as I am. Working within smaller dimensions was an enriching experience, as size influences the character of the object, she reveals. I invested a lot of myself into this research around small scale, using slabs twice as thin as usual so that the smaller finished pieces give off the same impression of lightness as the bigger ones.”

Guillaume Morel,
Journalist, art critic