Goldmark 27, 2022

We’re seeing 2022 out with our last magazine of the year – and what a year it has been. Through times shocking, disconcerting, and occasionally beyond farce, art has kept us rooted these past twelve months. In this latest issue, Florian Gadsby – ex-apprentice of Lisa Hammond and potter in his own right – reflects on Lisa’s teaching with a review of our latest ceramics show, while David Whiting looks forward to a forthcoming 2023 exhibition: the weird and wistful worlds of John Copley and Ethel Gabain, partners in life and in printmaking. We feature two dedications to major artists: Ceri Richards’ homage to Beethoven, our own to the late, great Brian Catling. And our editor turns his attention to the lifelong relationship with our fellow animals. We wish you every success and happiness for the new year.

CONTRIBUTORS

David Whiting is an art critic and curator. He has written or contributed to numerous books and exhibition catalogues, including studies of Gordon Baldwin, Ewen Henderson, Richard Batterham, and, for Goldmark, the painter Robert Dawson. With the photographer Jay Goldmark he collaborated on Modern British Potters and their Studios, published by A&C Black. Whiting has curated exhibitions for venues including Galerie Besson, London, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, The London Institute Gallery, York Museums Trust and the Crafts Council. He has been a selector for the Arts Council, and is a member of BAN (the British Art Network) and the International Association of Art Critics. His new book on the Anthony Shaw Collection at York Art Gallery is due out in 2023. 

Francesca Peacock is an arts and culture journalist. She has written for The Times, The Telegraph, The Spectator, The TLS, and other publications. Her first book, Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish, will be published by Head of Zeus in September 2023. 

Florian Gadsby is a ceramicist working in North London. For two years (2014-16) he was apprenticed to Lisa Hammond MBE at Maze Hill Pottery in Greenwich, London before spending a year as her part-time assistant and then a six-month visiting apprenticeship with Ken Matsuzaki in Mashiko, Japan. Documenting his career on Instagram and more recently YouTube has earned him a dedicated online following. In 2022, Gadsby exhibited with Hammond and two fellow ex-apprentices at Make (Hauser & Wirth, Somerset and completed a two-week residency at Make’s Southampton location in New York, USA. 

Brian Catling (1948-2022) was a poet, sculptor, author and performance artist known for his installations, egg tempera portraits of imagined Cyclopes and landscapes, and as author of the acclaimed Vorrh trilogy (2012). His commissions for solo installations and performances were many and international, including exhibitions in Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland, Australia and the USA. He was Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a fellow of Linacre College.