New Jordy Kerwick exhibition opens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park next month
Jordy Kerwick’s striking new solo exhibition One to Give. One to Take Away will be presented in Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s The Weston Gallery and outdoors this autumn.
One to Give. One to Take Away features dynamic sculptures and vibrant large-scale most of which were created especially for Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP).
An Australian artist now based in France, Kerwick places storytelling and material exploration at the heart of his practice. He creates compelling worlds where reality and fiction blur, inhabited by creatures that evoke the magic of myths and fairytales.
Known for the distinctive visual language of his paintings, the artist creates vast canvases flooded with bold colours and patterns, using characteristic flattened perspective and often set in fanciful landscapes. Within these imaginary realms, wolves, tigers and snakes dwell alongside fantastical hybrids such as unicorns and dragon-swans. More recently he has moved into sculpture, taking his cast of characters into three dimensions, rendered in bronze, stone, clay and even fake fur.
Emphasised in the context of YSP’s landscape are the deep-rooted connections that the legends and fables of folklore have to the natural world. Kerwick builds upon these traditions by inviting us to embrace a more fluid view of the past and forge alternative understandings. His work considers how we piece together history through archaeology - found objects and fragments that we weave stories around to make sense of what has gone before.
Central to One to Give. One to Take Away is Kerwick’s fictional narrative that he accidentally unearthed the sculptures in the exhibition in a secret vault, exposed when renovating his historic property in France. This captures his love of blurring boundaries, alternative histories, storytelling and the idea of parallel existences across time.
Kerwick says: “It is an honour and humbling to have the opportunity to present new and existing works in one of the world’s premier museums. I’m interested in alternate mythologies and imagined ‘what if’ worlds, so I’m thrilled to be exploring a fantastical reimagined historical narrative in such a beautiful context.”
Inside the light-filled Weston Gallery, new stone sculptures and reliefs include After the Storm (2025) and Before the Storm (2025), the Gaillac Stones named after the 7th-century town where Kerwick and his family live. These works expand on his notion of discovering artefacts that provide clues to long forgotten peoples and stories. Three small, enigmatic terracotta figures also draw on this theme.
A self-taught artist, Kerwick began his career in 2016, initially focusing on still life paintings. He quickly gained recognition with numerous exhibitions across Europe, the USA, China, Japan and Australia. Influenced by artists such as Henri Matisse, he is also indebted to more abstract painters like Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler. One to Give. One to Take Away is the artist’s first major institutional show in the UK.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors can engage with the ideas in Kerwick’s artworks through family-focused activities such as drawing games and sculpture-building. Further reading will be available in the gallery to expand on the themes in the exhibition and the fantastical world created by the artist.
Experience everything YSP has to offer, with standard tickets priced under £10 or £11 with Gift Aid, free admission for 18s and under, and free parking. Hydra vs Bear (2023), the large-scale bronze sculpture by Jordy Kerwick, is located a 25-minute walk away in YSP among some 90 artworks set against the breathtaking Yorkshire landscape.
Parking and admission to The Weston is free. Visitors can enjoy delicious seasonal food in the restaurant, browse for gifts by local makers in the shop, and discover new art in the gallery. The exhibition, supported by Vigo Gallery, opens on September 27.