The exhibition Forces of Nature runs from 17 November to 2 December 2026 at WSJ Gallery, 71 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH.
Nature has always been a source of wonder, inspiration and mystery for artists. In Forces of Nature, WSJ Gallery brings together the work of the ceramicist Claudia Rankin and the painter Liz Crossfield, two very distinctive artists whose practices, though very different in form, share a fascination with the natural world, the imagination and the stories we carry with us.
For Liz Crossfield, nature is a place of emotional connection and possibility, explored through childhood reveries, Jungian philosophy and the workings of the imagination. Her paintings invite us into a world where memory and myth intermingle, and where the familiar landscape can become something more mysterious. Drawing on her own experiences of being human, alive and connected to the world around her, Crossfield approaches painting as a means of exploring our relationship with nature, both external and internal.
Claudia Rankin's ceramics inhabit a world of their own: vivid, playful and richly layered with historical reference. Her fascination with colour, pattern and motif finds expression in an extraordinary cast of characters, from mystical, medieval-looking creatures to intricate decorative forms that seem to have travelled through time. Inspired by childhood visits to the Victoria and Albert Museum, her mother's interest in antique porcelain and the treasures of flea markets and antique shops, Rankin creates pieces that feel at once ancient and entirely contemporary. Her work has a wonderful sense of personality, combining technical skill with wit, exuberance and an instinctive love of the unexpected.
What unites these two artists is a shared willingness to look beyond the everyday. Both draw on personal histories, the richness of the past and the boundless possibilities of the imagination to create work that feels deeply individual yet instinctively connected to something larger. In Crossfield's paintings, nature becomes a landscape of feeling and reverie; in Rankin's ceramics, it takes on fantastical forms and a vibrant, almost folkloric life of its own.
Forces of Nature celebrates the many ways in which the natural world shapes our creative lives: as a source of beauty and curiosity, a repository of memory and a reminder of the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when observation gives way to imagination.
All works are available at wsjgallery.com
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