'Earthly Spirits' by Pinkie Maclure
‘Earthly Spirits’ brings together newly commissioned and existing stained glass works which explore environmental activism and the natural world.
Following the critical success of her exhibition Lost Congregation at CCA Glasgow in 2023, East Quay is delighted to present Earthly Spirits, a new solo exhibition by Scottish artist and musician Pinkie Maclure. The exhibition marks Maclure’s first solo show in England, running from Saturday 31 January to Monday 4 May 2026, at East Quay in Somerset.
Earthly Spirits was inspired by a visit to the Church of the Holy Ghost in Crowcombe, Somerset, where Maclure found pagan imagery, such as a Green Man, in a Christian setting. She also noticed a boy learning to play the piano there, while a twittering swallow circled above his head. These unlikely coexistences prompted the question: What is sacred? Is the Earth itself sacred? By reappropriating Christian and pagan symbolism, Maclure's work subverts traditional stained glass to celebrate nature and the spirit of rebellious optimism through grassroots environmental activism.
Central to the exhibition is The Soil, a monumental stained-glass installation created by the artist over 10 weeks, using hand-blown glass and glass reclaimed from a neighbour's greenhouse that had collapsed during Storm Arwen. In the work, a saintly gardener is peeing on her compost heap, stimulating growth and wittily celebrating nature's power to regenerate and flourish, while also warning us of the urgent issue of soil degradation from intensive farming methods.
Like an abandoned church being reclaimed by nature, the installation includes a specially written 3D sound installation recorded in collaboration with sound recordist John Wills, filling the space with Maclure's singing and the extraordinary sound of sap rising through an ancient oak tree. It continues with a gently flickering projection of stained-glass reflections, highlighting the ephemeral beauty and the spiritual omnipresence of nature.
The exhibition continues with a selection of existing stained-glass works and two newly commissioned stained-glass sculptures suspended in East Quay’s windows. The first, Lament for Tuppence, the artist’s first venture into 3D work, takes the form of a collapsing church window that gently transforms into a vine creeping around the gallery wall. The second, Bloomers is a steel and glass installation celebrating the first female gardeners at Kew in 1896, who unwittingly caused a scandal by wearing the same bloomers as their male colleagues. At the opening of the exhibition on Saturday, January 31, 2026, Maclure will present a live performance within the space alongside John Wills.
About the Artist
Pinkie Maclure (b. 1961) is a self-taught stained-glass artist and musician based on the west coast of Scotland. Supplementing her musical career by making conventional stained-glass windows for over 20 years, she realised that this once powerful, allegorical medium had become overlooked and trivialised. In response, she has developed a distinctive practice that is both skilled and irreverent, challenging the medium’s conservative reputation and using multiple techniques, including painting, sandblasting, engraving, and glass layering. Referencing news headlines, folklore, feminism, and personal experiences, Maclure’s work is held in major collections, including the UK Stained Glass Museum and the National Museum of Scotland. In 2023, she held her first institutional solo exhibition, Lost Congregation, at CCA Glasgow.
