GATESHEAD.- Jesse Wine (born Chester, 1983) works mainly with ceramics, using traditional techniques to explore form and the process of making. For his exhibition on the Ground Floor at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Wine made an ambitious installation of new work which responds to the quirks of modern life and pays homage to the artists he admires.

In the main space, Wine presents three ‘scenes’ comprising oversized ceramic puppets which act out activities from the artist’s everyday life in his south London studio. Inspired by Alexander Calder’s kinetic sculptures and ideas around children’s entertainment and theatre, the puppets are suspended from the ceiling on hanging mobile structures. Each puppet is a self-portrait made up of a series of ceramic elements which suggest the human form: a hat, torso, feet or shoes. They hover over low platforms, where other objects complete the narrative of each scene – scaled-up bags of clay, tools, unfinished sculptures, a discarded lunch, Reebok Classic trainers. Dramatically lit, these tableaus also allude to museum dioramas and displays.

Interested in the tradition of learning through making, in the adjoining space Wine presents a series of sculptures which copy or mimic other artists’ works. Drawing on the rich history of ceramics, particularly the work of Peter Voulkos, Ken Price and John Mason who were at the centre of California’s flourishing art scene in the 1950s and ‘60s, Wine has remade some of his favourite sculptures and situates these works alongside his own, providing a new frame of reference.

When working with ceramics, Wine does not record his methods, mixing glazes and oxides together and firing at different temperatures with uncertain outcomes. Colours melt and blend and structures collapse and fold in on themselves. The final work is thus the result of happenstance, from lopsided vessels with shiny metallic glazes to disfigured self-portrait heads sporting a variety of contemporary accessories, belts and bobble hats.

Jesse Wine was born in Chester in 1983 and received his BA in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Arts, London (2007) and his MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London (2010). He lives and works in London.

RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS: You Can’t Beat Nature, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales (2014); Chester man, Mary Mary, Glasgow (2014); People, Tunisi Court, London (2013); Travelling White Man, CO2 Gallery, Rome (2013); Simbolico, Fondazione Macc, Calasetta, Sardinia (2013); Practice of the Wild, Limoncello, London (2012); Modern Tone, The Sunday Painter, London (2011); Every Portrait A Self Portrait, Kinda Like Every Pizza A Masterpiece, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York (2010); Meat and Eggs, The Bun House, London (2010).

RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS: To Continue. Congratulations on your ugly handwriting, CURA, Rome (2014); Tomorrow: London, South London Gallery (2014); Notes towards a Sculpture Cycle, NOMAS Foundation, Rome (2014); Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs (two-person exhibition with Glen Pudvine), Cactus, Liverpool (2014); Bloody English, OHWOW, Los Angeles (2014); If this is left, what about right, Kate Werble, New York (2014); Hey, I’m Mr Poetic, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2014); Pleasure Principles, Fondation d’Enterprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (2014); Mud and Water, Rokeby, London (2013); Real Texture (two-person exhibition with Jackson Sprague), Hobbs Mclaughlin, London (2013); The Fresh Air Collection, Space Studios, London (2013); Open Heart Surgery, The Moving Museum, London (2013); Young London 2013, V22, London (2013).