A solo exhibition of works by Will Nash

Artelium presents Futures Past, and exhibition of sculpture, models and screen-prints by the artist Will Nash. His sculptures and installations are the result of ongoing explorations of mathematical forms and their relationships to one another. Follow the journey taken from rarely seen preparatory studies to finished sculptural pieces, giving an insight into the artist’s methods.

Husband and wife team, Mark Collins & Julie Bretland founded Artelium to bring together three of their greatest passions: wine, art and nature. Artelium embodies their long-held desire to create a wine estate as a unique space for art to coexist with nature. Their vision is to create a harmonious convergence of exceptional wine and contemporary art and sculpture, amidst the beautiful landscape of the South Downs.

Futures Past, is their first step to introducing large pieces of sculpture to the collection with the aim of extending this across the estate over the coming years, to provide an unparalleled wine and art experience.

Julie Bretland says “The reason we feel so drawn to Will’s work is how he references nature for inspiration, using the repetition of precise mathematical forms, which create something unique and often quite tactile in their own right. That creative expression mixed with scientific accuracy, along with a need for patience, is akin to winemaking.”

**Optohedron** 2020, Newlands Corner, Surrey Hills, Weathering Steel, Hazel, Stainless Steel 2m x 2.4m.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Will Nash lives and works in Lewes, East Sussex. His bold sculptures are inspired by the geometry of the natural world, and the examination of his place in it. Different bodies of work fall into families of forms that are connected by a particular geometry, repeating sequences of planes and angles to create similar variations on a theme.

Nash was born in Bangor, North Wales, in 1973 and studied Multimedia Fine Art at Middlesex University before completing an MA in Design by Project from the University of Brighton between 2004-2006. He has exhibited regularly in group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally, alongside producing public commissions for which he has won multiple awards throughout his career. Most recently Will has been awarded the Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Award for Public Art 2022.

THE CHEVRON, Artelium Wine Estate 2023, MILD steel

The Chevron which marks the first permanent sculpture in the grounds of the estate. The Chevron has had many lives. This bold and directional sculpture started its journey in 2009 as part of a ‘Building Schools for the Future’ project. Nash was commissioned by Impact Art and West Sussex County Council to develop sculptures and wayfinding signage for two new schools. The You Are Here project involved working directly with staff and students. Nash developed a scheme based on patterns made up of isosceles triangles, that could be seen from tiny enamel door signs to two large steel Chevron sculptures that stood in front of each school. The smaller sculpture is still installed in front of Southway primary school.

In 2017 The Regis School were having problems with students climbing on the sculpture and their new headmaster decided that the best solution was to remove it. Nash offered it to the Cass Foundation sculpture park, who accepted it into their collection. The Cass Foundation was a pioneering not-for-profit organisation that inspired, enabled and presented the output of some of the most important figures in contemporary sculpture.

The Chevron, originally blue and red in colour was painted in two shades of green to reflect the move from an urban environment into a woodland sculpture garden.

In 2020 the Cass Foundation closed. A new home was needed for The Chevron and Nash, aware that Artelium had a vision for creating their own sculpture park, thought that the estate would be the perfect fit for the next stage of The Chevron’s journey. After conversations between Will, Mark and Julie, it was decided Artelium would be the new custodian of The Chevron.

This piece has had multiple lives, different narratives and different purposes depending on its location. For the latest installation of The Chevron, to reflect the passing of time, the sculpture will evolve during the period of the exhibition. Initially installed in it’s cloak of green, over the course of the exhibition The Chevron will be sandblasted to remove the previous layers of paint and give it a new lease of life. As it is left to weather, the raw steel will develop a natural patina of rust as the Future becomes the Past….

RETURNING TO ISOSCELES

To coincide with the arrival of The Chevron, Artelium also invited Nash to revisit and re-explore the work he did during the ‘You Are Here’ project back in 2009, with a view to creating new original works for our limited release Artefact wine labels.

Returning to the isosceles pattern, Nash revised and evolved the idea introducing some additional variations on the triangle. What would happen if it was expanded, layered and rotated?

ARTEFACT

Artelium's ARTEFACT wines bring together winemakers and artists to celebrate the nature of exceptional wine, handcrafted in Sussex. A limited and unique wine is elevated by commissioning artworks that wrap the bottles and remain as a permanent addition to Artelium's art collection. The artworks that wrap our ARTEFACT #4 and ARTEFACT #5 wines are designed by Nash, each limited to less than 300 bottles.

Multiple grids of simple triangles and curves are superimposed to create prismatic patterns, orderly sequences decay into chaos the combine to find new order. This is influenced by the same isosceles triangles that are the origin of The Chevron.

CENTURY

Alongside the designs for the bottle labels, Nash was also commissioned to design and produce a collection of 100 unique screen prints. Based on the same grid as the labels, these prints explore ideas around order and chaos through principles of mathematical tiling. There are four patterns based on a square grid. Each one can be used in four orientations to create multiple alternative alignments. Each print is completely unique, depending on; combinations of colours, how many times each pattern was used, orientation, and the order in which the colours were printed. The process used to create these original prints allows for infinite variations.

These unique screen prints are available to purchase directly from the Tasting Room throughout May.

Many are on display, but some are not, if you would like to browse the full range or have a particular colour you are interested in then please let our team know.

Art at Artelium: Futures Past

Sussex Day: Exploring Sussex

Bank Holiday Bottles for Sunshine Sipping