Dan Kelly & Barry Stedman’s exhibition at Bluecoat Display Centre is a beautiful education in how medium affects colour.
Clay takes pigment differently to paper, and the variety of carriers for those pigments are different too.
Graphite and ink soak in, and dye their page. Slip and glaze coat it. The depth of the black on Dan Kelly’s clay vessels is infinitely deep. The black of his 2D work on a thickly primed wooden board is dense and finite. On paper, it’s hazy, translucent and boundaryless.
But it’s active and energetic across all of those canvases. A single artist. One palette. Three distinct holders of monochromatic pigments.
It’s not that palette that shows the distinction though, because Barry Stedman’s kaleidoscopic colour across canvas and clay makes the most of the exhibition space at Bluecoat Display Centre.
On canvas, it’s an explosion of pastel. On clay, in deep, glossy glaze, it’s an oily, gluttonous pool adorning heavily manipulated pots whose malformed handles clarify their intention as artworks rather than utilities.
Dan Kelly & Barry Stedman’s exhibition at Bluecoat Display Centre is an exploration of material, colour and craft. It’s only on until 5th October, but useful for anyone aiming to understand the application of pigment in their own work.
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Dan Kelly & Barry Stedman ends 5th October
Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith