Spirit of Place Exhibition 1 March - 28 April 2025

The Spirit of Place exhibition aims to be a thought provoking show where the artwork  engages on a deeper level than just the aesthetic. It embraces the notion of 'place' as can be interpreted not only as a location, but also as a way of being.

For this unusual show, Utopia have brought together three artists who responded to the brief in different ways.  They each chose to express what the essence of place means to them through very different media: metal, ceramic and collage.

Jeni Cairns

Jeni Cairns is a Cambridgeshire-based artist whose strong connection to wild nature guides both her inner and outer worlds.

By harnessing the strength and versatility of reclaimed metal, Jeni creates intricate sculptures that reflect complex narratives of her relationship with the wild.

“In metal, as in nature, there’s a delicacy, yet enduring strength and resilience".

She uses a plasma cutter to cut into reclaimed metal such as old gas pipes, oil drums and cans, to create a tracery design of natural creatures and plants. This process harmonises her making skills with her strong passion for nature.

Fran Squires

Fran Squires is an East Anglian storyteller who uses textiles, print making, drawing and salvaged remnants to tell her narratives. She works in a very organic way letting the stories unfold in a loose graphic style with painterly details. Drawn to patterns in the world around her, she transposes these into pictorial artworks that attract the eye and pique curiosity.

After studying Surface Pattern at university, she went on to work as a designer, then technician at Norwich University of the Arts. Fran is now a full-time artist devoting her time to exploring new ways to tell her stories.

For the Spirit of Place exhibition Fran has focused on creating a series of 6 pictures that reflect daily walks around her village.

Jaeeun Kim

Jaeeun Kim's ceramics are personal narratives inspired by the art therapy method House-Tree-Person. Through delicate porcelain vases, she explores healing and self-discovery, expressing connections to home.

Her sculptural vessels are created by the slip cast method using fine porcelain fired at 1220 degrees centigrade. Decorated with glazes, drawings and transfers, her ceramics have a delicate and dainty quality with an ethereal aura.

Born in South Korea, Jaeeun focuses her art practice from her London studio.

Interwoven Forms: The Art of Clay and Lace

1 February - 28 March 2025

Lesley Farrell creates beautiful sculptural forms in ceramic.

Her hand-built vessels employ traditional coiling and pinch construction methods. 

Many of the pieces are double walled, creating the illusion of density, with delicate surface patterns sourced from vintage lace. 

She is interested in exploring how traces of the past can be held and recalled through hand-made objects. The transfer of the surface pattern relies on the touch of the original lace enfolding the ceramic form.  The work alludes to the former life of the lace and the absence of the persons who owned and made it. 

Having obtained a degree in Ceramics from Loughborough College of Art & Design, Lesley now pursues a career in the gallery sector and is an established curator alongside her studio practice.  She also has an MA in Photography and a PGCE Art and Design.

Elaine Peto has spent a lifetime being inspired by the natural world. From her studio in Hampshire she studies animal behaviour, their forms and characteristics. Elaine's current portfolio includes ceramic sculptures of farm and wild animals and even sea creatures. She specialises in creating one-off pieces using textured stoneware and porcelain clay.

“My aim is to capture the essence of the beast”

At Exeter College of Art & Design, Elaine studied animals through research visits to livestock markets and abattoirs, using the media of photography and drawing to record the structure of the carcass. After graduating in 1985, she continued her studies of agricultural animals, setting up her own studio in 1986.

There is a softness about Elaine's sculptures, that despite the hard ceramic form, she manages to create a flesh/skin like quality with the employment of various scratching techniques and impressing textured textiles into the soft clay. This creates a highly tactile surface that demands to be touched. Her use of multiple glazes adds a further dimension that enhances and attracts.

Elaine makes each animal as an individual, determined to suggest character with her enigmatic styling processes. Each creature is made by building the form using clay slabs: rolling out a sheet of clay and forming the body, then gradually adding slab by slab to form the whole animal. The details are then remodelled until the animal is complete. The animal is biscuit fired, glazed and re-fired to stoneware.

We are delighted to showcase the work of this accomplished sculptor at Utopia.