There is now a new exhibition in Church Hall:

Glow, Gleam, Luminous Radiance

Alexandra Selwyn-Gray

3rd of September – 25th of December 2026

Private view 4th of November 2026 15.00-18.00

Glow, Gleam, Luminous Radiance brings together ceramic works from Alexandra Selwyn-Gray’s practice, together with two photographic series made in Paris and Italy. Spanning different periods and media, the works reflect a longstanding interest in form, colour, pattern and the visual character of objects and their surroundings, engaging the audience through these elements.

The ceramic works represent two strands: an earlier body of work engaged with the female body image, and more recent works engaging with the absence of a child.

The dresses represent mementoes often kept by parents who have lost an infant and form part of this exploration of loss.

The accompanying photographic series, Concrete Poetry, focuses on found objects removed from their original contexts and considered for their textures, contours and unexpected visual relationships. A second series explores railway stations, particularly Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris and Roma Termini in Rome. Signal lights, architectural details and railway infrastructure become studies in geometry, repetition and intense colour, transforming functional structures into compositions approaching abstraction.

Selwyn-Gray’s career began in Australia, where she completed a three-year Diploma course in fashion design at Seven Hills Art College in Brisbane, now part of Queensland University. She twice won the Queensland Fashion Awards, created a collection for the Australian Wool Board and was shortlisted as a model for Vogue Australia. After returning to Denmark, she represented the country at Scandinavian Designers of the Year at the Future Fashion Fair in Copenhagen. Her collection attracted offers from Magasin and Illum.

Her transition from fashion into the visual arts extended her interest in construction, painting and designed form. She subsequently developed a practice encompassing ceramics, glass, sculpture, installation, photography, video and performance within her Fine Art practice.

In 1997, Selwyn-Gray completed a BA (Hons) in 3D Glass Design at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design/University of Surrey, followed by an MA in Fine Art at the University of Wolverhampton.

During her MA, Selwyn-Gray’s practice moved towards Fine Art, becoming increasingly underpinned by theory and an interest in how to engage the audience, particularly through photography, video, performance video and immersive installations combining glass installations with moving-image works.

For many years, she was a member of the artist group Vision in Art, exhibiting particularly in London. In 2007, a residency at the Accademia di Danimarca in Rome marked a further expansion into performance, photography and video. There, she was awarded the Queen Ingrid Royal Rome Scholarship, following her shortlisting for the Helen Chadwick Award at the British School at Rome.

Residencies have been central to Selwyn-Gray’s practice, including one at The Australian National University School of Art and Design in Canberra in 1996; the Jeckels Residency in collaboration with Skagens Museum in 2008; and five residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, beginning with a studio provided by the Danish Arts Council in 2007. Her work in Paris resulted in photographic and video projects, several of which were exhibited there.

During a residency in Ebeltoft in 1997, she assisted Thai Munch and Finn Lyngaard. In 2013, she filmed one of her performance pieces at the Académie de France, Villa Medici, in Rome.

In recent years, Selwyn-Gray has returned to ceramics, bringing her experience across disciplines to the medium. Her fashion training remains evident in her sensitivity to silhouette, composition, colour and surface, while her years working with glass have informed her understanding of luminosity and light.