Art Exhibitions

Magician of the Earth

14 November 2021

An exhibition of stoneware creatures

At the grand age of 83, the author and artist who made Where the Wild Things Are come to life, Maurice Sendak stated the following:

"I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man. I can't believe it." He smiles and his face transforms.

"I was young just minutes ago."

Kevin Collins is now twenty years younger than Maurice and yet he often feel that he too was young only minutes ago.

This exhibition features ceramic creations that were inspired by the way children manage to live in both a fantasy and a reality world; how they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do as adults. The artist admires this ability.

The work emerges from a lump of cold wet mud and forms it’s persona as it moves across Collin's work table. Seldom does he consider too carefully the final image but rather let them manifest on a whim the moment when he starts putting down the marks of underglaze.

Kevin Collins studied under Stanley Pinker, Helmut Starke and Cecil Skotness at Michaelis, UCT in the late seventies with painting as his specialization. They influenced the basis of how Collins' uses colour, composition and laying the paint down.

His imagery is a reflection from years of traveling many miles around the world and making small sketches and picking up little bits of visual imagery from packaging, transport tickets and sweet wrappers from Burma to Bangalore. Some imagery emerges from his childhood and early love of illustrated story books.

Participating: Kevin Collins