Dansel Gallery's 30th anniversary
Pole bench, Karen Hanson, scorched stripped ash
The Dansel Gallery in Dorset celebrates its 30th anniversary with an exhibition of specially commissioned work this summer until 31 August
The gallery was set up in 1979 when wood-workers Danielle and Selwyn Holmes moved to Abbotsbury and decided to open their studio up to the public. ‘We didn’t plan to open a gallery, but just started showing our own work and then it grew from there’, explains Danielle. Crucially the couple made the decision to stick with their own medium and consequently instead of showing a hotchpotch of items, the gallery stands out from the country craft gallery crowd with a well-defined image as a wood specialist – it represents nearly 200 artists providing possibly the highest concentration of contemporary woodwork in the country.
Their anniversary exhibition features a whole variety of work in different woods ranging from marquetry panels by Alardus van den Bosch and vessels by the likes of Derek Holdaway and Don White to a flock of carved sea gulls by John Mainwairing and a walnut rocking horse by Marcus Mindelsohn. There’ll also be some archive material from the gallery’s history on show – press cuttings, information about previous makers and displays.
www.danselgallery.co.uk
