Vessels marks Hal Witney’s first major solo exhibition with Olsen Gallery. Bringing together painted ceramic forms with figurative interiors, dyed paper-pulp paintings, and large-scale drawings, the exhibition traces intimacy, symbolism, and the porous edges of the self.

Video above by Jamie Gray. https://jamiegray.tv/

The ceramics carry colour on the outside and messy, childish drawings within. The pulp works—dyed through the fibre—picture a mother’s bath and a father’s orchid flowers; and two large drawings encompass figurative and ambiguous undertones of desire, shame and guilt.

“I wanted to make a body of work about being held—physically, emotionally, metaphorically. A vessel carries, contains, protects, and even leaks; the human spirit acts the same, always adapting, always porous. These works are themselves vessels—made to hold whatever the viewer is willing to place inside.”