Emma Rodgers, Johnny Vegas, Jacob Chan, James Lawler, Peter Hayes & Max Eugeni: BOOM

BOOM
Emma Rodgers, Johnny Vegas, Jacob Chan, James Lawler, Peter Hayes & Max Eugeni.

Opening 5th June, 5:30pm onwards at The Old Fire Station

Emma Rodgers is sharing her new studio with artists Johnny Vegas, Jacob Chan, James Lawler, Peter Hayes & Max Eugeni.

This internationally celebrated group of artists are celebrating with their first studio group exhibition in their new home, as part of Independents Biennial’s launch events.

The exhibition continues through June and July as part of the festival.

The artists:

Emma Rodgers

Johnny Vegas

What ADHD denies it equally blesses its host with. The sense of social inadequacy
leaves time to find wonder, inspiration and tales yet untold in objects, shapes and
constructions sometimes taken for granted in nature and often in engineering
endeavours.“

I see something beautiful in a shape. Some folk don’t get it, family or friends
often make fun of my weirdness, but as a loner I’ve learnt to find beauty,
mutual appreciation and ultimately inspiration from the inanimate. Solace in the
visually discarded. I’m in no better company than when I glimpse a natural form or a
lathe turned attempt to borrow from the genius and beauty of nature. I’m captivated
by the background of a photo, not the subject in the foreground. My focus refuses to
be dictated to by expectations

@johnnyvegasofficial

Jacob Chan

My work is heavily based around my cultural background and heritage. Being half Chinese and half English my ceramics take inspiration from traditional Chinese shapes and forms, whilst the surfaces are heavily decorated in slips and oxides that contain other raw materials such as sand, slate and broken pottery collected from around the coastlines and mountain ranges of Britain. I use these materials to represent my Western culture and my cultural journey through my creativity.

www.jchanceramics.co.uk // @jchanceramics

Peter Hayes

I have always been interested in the history of ceramics – why and how ‘things’ are made of clay. This interest was extended after I spent several years travelling through Africa working with various tribes and village potters and being intrigued how, with limited technology and basic tools, they were able to get such exquisite, beautiful surfaces. I found the same inherent skills in India, Nepal Japan and New Mexico. I tried to adopt the ideas picked up from my travels in my own work. By building up layers of textured clay combined with burnishing and polishing of surfaces, I try to achieve opposites of rough and smooth.

www.peterhayessculpture.co.uk // @peterhayessculpture

Max Eugeni

Max is a Wirral-based artist currently pursuing his master’s in Print at the Royal College of Art.
His work explores the experience of the unknown. Collage and printmaking allow him to work with form in a way that emulates the process of conceptualizing and imagining—taking abstract imagery through cycles of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Conscious forms are threaded with intuitive ones; patterns are built, then shifted; ideas are found, then torn apart.

@maxeugeni

Built 1902 and designed by William & Segar Owen, the Fire Engine Station is situated in a lane that runs between Park Road and Wood Street, behind the housing blocks. The building was originally used as stables, but became a fire station in 1906. The horse drawn appliances were replaced by motorised vehicles in 1914. There was also a fire station within the factory, built in 1885. They were both operational until 1957 when Cheshire Fire Brigade built a new station off New Chester Road to serve the area instead. It was most recently used as offices by a security company.

Earlier this year, wirral-based and world-renowned sculptor Emma Rodgers moved in to the station and transformed it into a new studio space for her and her collaborative partners, Jacob Chan, Johnny Vegas and James Lawler. Their first studio exhibition opens as part of Independents Biennial.