‘A Firework for Vincent’ at Anima Mundi, (06/02 – 22/03)

I’m delighted to announce ‘A Firework for Vincent’, a solo exhibition at Anima Mundi gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall, (06/02 – 22/03/26). This will be an intimate and reflective body of work comprising sculptural assemblage, paper based works and installation, across two floors of the gallery.

This work occupies thresholds. Surfaces are stitched, marked, layered and worn; objects become instruments, not only of sound or sight but of passage. Some respond to the land, some hum with memory, others simply await the listening. Here, absence is presence, darkness is ground, and matter is animated by the invisible. Through this alchemy of making, the personal becomes universal.

To enter is to move lightly, to notice, to linger, to allow the work to unfold on its own terms. A Firework for Vincent is at once a self-portrait and a constellation, a memory and a possibility, a light cast into the darkened field of what might have been. It is a place where what is broken, buried or absent is neither lost nor explained, but becomes a site of transformation, a threshold of perception and an invitation to inhabit the invisible. – Extract from ‘A Firework from Vincent’, exhibition introduction by Joseph Clarke, 2026

Please join us for the preview of the exhibition on Friday 6th February, 6.30-8.30pm.

‘A Firework for Vincent’ is accompanied by ‘Rinascita’; a solo presentation of paintings by Italian artist, Massimo Angei on floor one of the gallery.

For further information, visit www.animamundigallery.com.

Artist portrait, studio, 2026
The Hermit . wool and cotton fibres, dyed cotton, chalk distemper, rubber, copper, beeswax, resin, bone . 120 x 100 x 12 cm

‘Animal’ at Anima Mundi, (18/07 – 29/08)

I’m delighted to have work included in ‘Animal’, @animamundigallery, (18/07 – 29/08).

‘Animal’ includes work by Sam Bassett, Paul Benney, Jim Carter, Kate Clark, Judith Nangala Crispin, Claire Curneen, Lena Dabska, Miles Cleveland Goodwin, Andrew Hardwick, Andrew Litten, Antony Micaleff, Jamie Mills, Tom Pether, Dr Martin Shaw, Tim Shaw, Oleksii Shcherbak, Kate Walters, David Kim Whittaker, Joy Wolfenden Brown, Faye Eleanor Woods.

Introduction :

“The man and the beast are one cloth.” — Cornish Proverb

Here – where memory is held in stone and sea and whispered on the wind—stories were once told of the animals who moved between worlds. These myths reflected our deeper relationship – of an inherent knowing kinship with all living beings. In ‘Cad Goddeau’, the 6th Century Welsh poet Taliesin wrote “I have been a stag, a salmon in a pool, a dog, a roebuck on the mountain..” This sentiment is shared across time and cultures where shamans, elders, and healers speak the same truth: Animals are not “other.”

Bonaparte the Pig may be right when he declared that “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Today, in the shadow of ecological collapse, a murmur of ‘older ways’ should be heard loud and clear. Our Earth is burning, drowning, breaking under weight of progress. Species vanish daily. And behind every extinction is a broken relationship. Science now supports what ancient teachings have always held: That we are not separate from the Earth. We are participants in a shared system – body, breath, and being. This is not poetic concept, It is scientific imperative. Earth is undergoing a sixth mass extinction, driven by habitat loss, climate change, and industrial exploitation. Since 1970, global wildlife populations have declined by 69% on average. When a species disappears, it tears holes in our ecosystems—and in ourselves.

“We are not separate spirits. We are one spirit walking in many bodies”— Lakota oral tradition

Memory of Salt . paper, thread, quills, beeswax, resin, chalk, kaolin . 40 x 32 cm

‘The Land Will Call You Home’, Tremenheere Sculpture Garden

Rooted in Cornwall, this exhibition traces our deep connection to the land – how we come from it, live within it, and return, through works shaped by clay, mineral, memory, and myth, exploring what it means to belong to a place. ‘The Land Will Call You Home’, is curated by artist, Samuel Bassett.

Featuring artists: Ali Bassett, Andy Harper, Arthur Lanyon, Ben Sanderson, Carlos Zapata, Chantel Powell, Charlie Duck, Daisy Rickman, Holly Bunce, Jamie Mills, Joe Packer, Katrina Naomi, Kyra Norma, Libita Sibungu, Nina Royal, Orla Kane, Ro Robertson, Rosanna Martin, Samuel Bassett, SHARP, Simon Bayliss, Siobhan McLaughlin, Tegen Mor Tossell.

Introduction:

‘We arrive as small happenings, brief bursts of life, emerging from and returning to the land beneath us. These works trace that cycle: life and death, presence and absence, the rhythms of seasons, stars, and stone.

Rooted in Cornwall, each artist brings their own place, a fragment of celestial knowledge, geography, spirit, and soil. Through clay, mineral, myth and memory, they explore what it means to belong to a landscape. The land is worked with, spoken to, and remembered. These are marks of the body and the soul.

Themes of rebirth, death, and time ripple across the show. Patterns emerge, tensions and balances that echo the landscape itself. Footprints and fingerprints press into soft earth; berries bruise clay; valleys are followed like old stories. There is a sense of deep listening, of attunement.

We glimpse new spaces imagined from the familiar, how many ways there are to see the same place. Ideas grow differently, like people nurtured by the same soil but turning their faces to different suns.

We are connected, like the mycelium beneath our feet, alone yet not alone. A web of roots, gestures, and echoes. The land moves through us as we move through it, pulsing with life. Something old gives way to something new. A seed after a blossom. A breath shared between beings.

This is not a straight line, but a living rhythm. An organism of many parts.

We, the resilient, make sense of this place, its beauty, its weight, its change, and find ourselves within it, again and again.’

– Sam Bassett

Exhibition dates: 26 April – 13 June 2025,

Preview: Friday 25 April, 17:00-19:00

‘lucent’ comes to the Arts Institute, University of Plymouth

I am delighted to announce that after touring Ireland last year, ‘lucent’, curated by David Quinn, will be opening imminently at the University of Plymouth @plymuniartsculture. It is such a pleasure to be able to share this immensely special exhibition with a South West and U.K. audience. Many of the artists, will be present on the preview evening – come and see us! There will also be an associated programme of events throughout the duration of the show, see: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/lucent

Lucent
18 January – 15 March 2025

Private View : Friday, 17 January 17:30 – 19:30

Opening hours
Tue – Fri: 10:00 – 16:00
Sat: 12:00 – 16:00

The Levinsky Gallery, Roland Levinsky Building University of Plymouth, PL4 8AA

lucent is an exhibition of small works by twelve international artists, curated by artist David Quinn @davidquinn.ie

Exhibiting artists:

Charles Brady (Ire), Niamh Clarke (NI), Vincent Hawkins (UK), Hiroyuki Hamada (JN), Tjibbe Hooghiemstra (NL),
Jamie Mills (UK), Janet Mullarney (Ire), Helen O’Leary (Ire), David Quinn (Ire), Seamus Quinn (Ire), Sean Sullivan (US), John Van Oers (BE).

Poster image by Seamus Quinn

‘Tenuis’ work by Eila Goldhahn, Stuart J Young & Jamie Mills, 11th October – 8th November

To coincide with Plymouth Art Weekender @plymartwkndr , (18/10-20/10), I will be showing work alongside Stuart J Young & Eila Goldhahn in their beautiful, domestic gallery setting.

‘Tenuis’

18/10-20/10, 11-5pm & then until 08/11 by appointment
6 Lipson Terrace, Plymouth, PL4 7PR

‘Tenuis’ features work by Stuart J Young, Eila Goldhahn, and Jamie Mills. The exhibition traverses drawing, sculpture, artefact, and moving image to share a common voice in the exploration of gesture, material status, and ritual as a means of contemplation and transformation.

These works speak of fragility and diligence. They honour their material integrity as well as their process of creation – the innate errant journeys that exist between a quiet inner voice and an emergent materiality – in their small disruptions. As with prayer, of which, its strength exists in the activity, it is the accumulation of subtle voices – a gentle coaxing which begets transformation through the interfacing of the materials over time. – JM

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 Shortlist

I am deeply honoured that my drawing, ‘Trust’, has found its way into the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 shortlist!

I still remember the strength of my first encounter with the then Jerwood Drawing Prize touring exhibition as a student – it left an indelible impression on me. ‘Trust’ will be included in this years exhibition, which will open to the public on the 3rd October at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, and from there it will travel to Salisbury, Falmouth, Dundee, and Manchester, until October 2025.