Current exhibition

10 March – 3 April 2010
Tuesday – Friday, 12 – 6pm
Saturday 11 – 4pm

Envisage: a sculptural journey

Richard Gilbert



The dream of every Medieval Christian was to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There they could walk the via dolorosa (the way of sorrows) or the via cruces (the way of the cross), stopping along the route to think about Jesus' last journey. But for those who could never make such a hazardous journey, there was an alternative. All over Europe special shrines offered the would-be pilgrim a way of going on pilgrimage at home. The traditional fourteen stopping places became the 'Stations of the Cross'. They showed scenes from the way of the cross, designed for meditation, insight and inspiration. This form still inspires and challenge artists today.

Envisage, with its fourteen huge and impressive heads by Richard Gilbert, refers to the traditional 'stations'. But this is no conventional piece of religious iconography. Each of these, sometimes fearsome, heads is deliberately made using different materials, individually expressing ideas, moods and resonances. Consequently – depending on one's perspective – they may act as a challenging sculptural journey or as the basis for pilgrimage, offering an opportunity for meditation in the run-up to Easter. Whichever way they are approached this collection of heads is a tour de force.

About the artist
Richard Gilbert is practising artist and teacher of Art. He undertook postgraduate Study in Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art, London during 1983-84 where he gained the Barclays Bank Painting Award. Subsequently he was an Abbey Major Scholarship in Painting at the British School a Rome 1984-85. He travelled to the United States on a Harkness Fellowship to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA Program) 1987-89. Recent one-person exhibitions include: Touching Silence – Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, 2002: Fourteen Leominster Priory Church, Herefordshire and Fourteen at Worcester Cathedral in 2006. Passage, Beardsmore Gallery, London 2000. His work is held in public and private collections including amongst others, Arthur Anderson, Barclays Bank, Clifford Chance, Lloyds of London and Unilever, as well as in the Plymouth Art Gallery and Museum, the Contemporary Art Society, the De Beers Collection and the Victoria Art Gallery, Melbourne.