Showing in Millennium Gallery’s main space, These Mad Hybrids presents John Hoyland’s rarely seen explorations of sculptural forms, alongside work by Caroline Achaintre, Phyllida Barlow, Hew Locke and more.
Find out more about Sheffield-born artist John Hoyland (1934–2011) in our Meet the Locals profile.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is a group of ceramic sculptures made by John Hoyland, an artist best known for his abstract paintings. On public display for only the second time since 1994, the works, which Hoyland affectionately called his "mad little hybrids", saw the artist explore a new avenue of artistic investigation.
The exhibition sees Hoyland’s sculptural works in dialogue with a spectacular, international, assembly of contemporary sculpture, featuring works by Caroline Achaintre, Eric Bainbridge, Phyllida Barlow, Olivia Bax, Hew Locke, Anna Reading, Jessi Reaves, Andrew Sabin, John Summers and Chiffon Thomas.
The featured artists share a common fascination and appreciation for colour, materiality, and creative process. They work with materials ranging from cement or synthetic fabric to glitter, combining human and animal bodies, furniture, everyday objects and architecture into playful, bold, new sculptural hybrids.
These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture can be seen on display alongside Strange Presence: John Hoyland Paintings, which showcases a selection of the bold, striking abstract paintings for which Hoyland is best known. Together, these two exhibitions highlight the dynamic connection between Hoyland’s approach to painting and sculpture, challenging the boundaries of what both sculpture and painting can be and how they speak to each other.
These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture has been curated by artist Olivia Bax and Sam Cornish and Wiz Patterson Kelly of the John Hoyland Estate.
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See more of Hoyland’s work at Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, where four of his ceramic sculptures are shown in conversation with four related paintings in John Hoyland: Imaginary Beings, until 16 March 2025, free entry.
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