Under the Orange Sticks of the Sun
Exhibition, 2026

Curated by Roma Piotrowska, this exhibition spans drawing, painting, monotype printmaking and video, and includes work produced over eight years. Rooted in personal history in the forestry industry and the artist’s long-standing engagement with ecological systems, the exhibition brings together two forested sites separated by 310 million years and 7,000 kilometres: the primordial coal‑forming swamps of the Black Country and a mountainside in the West Kootenays (block R14738E) in British Columbia, Canada, shaped by wildfire and logging. The exhibition title, Under the Orange Sticks of the Sun, is drawn from ‘Morning Poem’ by Mary Oliver. It evokes the sun as both life-giving force and as intensified heat linked to climate-driven wildfire, and is an ode to hopefulness even under dire conditions. An exhibition essay by Canadian writer and curator greta hamilton can be downloaded here.

The exhibition includes fossil specimens from the Lapworth Museum of Geology and coal from the Black Country Living Museum. Kindly supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Council England, Canada House, the Beaverbrook Foundation, and players of People's Postcode Lottery.