Exhibitions
Tom Leaper | The Show
Join us for the opening night on Friday 16th June 17:30 onwards, all welcome!
Renowned Penwith sculptor Tom Leaper has extended the idea of the thorn trees made in lockdown into a full exhibition of open-structured compositions built out of fragments of bronze sheets, woven together to create a series of works based on Cornish woodlands; angular, windswept, inspired by the landscape of Penwith.
Invited into the space to celebrate Tom’s 60th year are artists Sophie Fraser, Jason Lilley, Karen McEndoo, Immi Rorke and Iona Sanders. Each has contributed paintings to compliment and harmonise with the angular forms of the sculptures.
Tom Leaper:
"I’ve lived and worked on the edge of the Moors in West Penwith for almost 40 years and feel deeply rooted in its landscape and the community here. My work involves private commissions alongside my studio practice, resulting in artwork that ranges in both form and media. The scale of my work also varies, from intimate painting and sculpture to large installations, fountains, landscape design, and public projects. I enjoy great creative freedom this way.
Over the years I’ve become a skilled metalworker, using sheet bronze, stainless steel and copper as well as solid casting in bronze and iron. I’ve embraced cutting-edge design processes to enhance my traditional fabrication techniques. These include the use of fibreglass, vacuum moulding, drone site-mapping and AutoCAD design. Often I will model a sculpture in clay, then 3D-scan it to be digitally enlarged and milled in high density foam, before being cast in metal at a larger size. This allows me to retain the unique qualities of hand-formed sculpture at an impressive scale.
I’m drawn to organic forms, they’re calming to look upon, and incredibly absorbing to make. I hope those engaging with my work similarly have a pleasant, thoughtful experience.
I’m fascinated with the process of abstraction. You can start with a representational subject and simplify it, break it down into its formal elements. I prefer to start with the unrecognisable form, and build it up, working until I get a sense of something, a hint of what it ‘is’."
Invited into the space to celebrate Tom’s 60th year are artists Sophie Fraser, Jason Lilley, Karen McEndoo, Immi Rorke and Iona Sanders. Each has contributed paintings to compliment and harmonise with the angular forms of the sculptures.
Tom Leaper:
"I’ve lived and worked on the edge of the Moors in West Penwith for almost 40 years and feel deeply rooted in its landscape and the community here. My work involves private commissions alongside my studio practice, resulting in artwork that ranges in both form and media. The scale of my work also varies, from intimate painting and sculpture to large installations, fountains, landscape design, and public projects. I enjoy great creative freedom this way.
Over the years I’ve become a skilled metalworker, using sheet bronze, stainless steel and copper as well as solid casting in bronze and iron. I’ve embraced cutting-edge design processes to enhance my traditional fabrication techniques. These include the use of fibreglass, vacuum moulding, drone site-mapping and AutoCAD design. Often I will model a sculpture in clay, then 3D-scan it to be digitally enlarged and milled in high density foam, before being cast in metal at a larger size. This allows me to retain the unique qualities of hand-formed sculpture at an impressive scale.
I’m drawn to organic forms, they’re calming to look upon, and incredibly absorbing to make. I hope those engaging with my work similarly have a pleasant, thoughtful experience.
I’m fascinated with the process of abstraction. You can start with a representational subject and simplify it, break it down into its formal elements. I prefer to start with the unrecognisable form, and build it up, working until I get a sense of something, a hint of what it ‘is’."
