Vessels marks Hal Witney’s first major solo exhibition with Olsen Gallery. Bringing together painted ceramic forms with figurative interiors, dyed paper-pulp paintings, and large-scale drawings, the exhibition traces intimacy, symbolism, and the porous edges of the self.

The ceramics carry colour on the outside and messy, childish drawings within. The pulp works—dyed through the fibre—picture a mother’s bath and a father’s orchid flowers; and two large drawings encompass figurative and ambiguous undertones of desire, shame and guilt.

“I wanted to make a body of work about being held—physically, emotionally, metaphorically. A vessel carries, contains, protects, and even leaks; the human spirit acts the same, always adapting, always porous. These works are themselves vessels—made to hold whatever the viewer is willing to place inside.”