Surface Tensions brings together the work of Stephan Ehrenhofer, Molly Thomson, and Derek Wilson—three artists who explore the material, structural, and conceptual possibilities of wall-based sculpture. Across ceramics, constructed paintings, and textile forms, their practices interrogate the surfaces that hold, resist, and reveal. Each artist employs minimalist strategies to question the boundaries of their chosen medium.
Stephan Ehrenhofer’s restrained textile and mixed media works evoke a quiet precision, reflecting on the intrinsic qualities of materials and the legacy of non-objective art. His pared-back compositions invite close attention to the relationships between surface, texture, and form.
The painting-objects Molly Thomson makes are developed through a process of cutting, disassembling and reassembling. Whether the starting point is a single panel or multiple components, she begins with basic rules, only then to break them in order to de-stabilise the thought process and provoke uncertainty. The resulting work can seem part-rational and part the product of play.
Derek Wilson brings a sculptural sensibility to the ceramic vessel, abstracting functional forms into complex constructions that play with balance, light, and shadow. His wall-based pieces embrace subtle tonal variations and the quiet drama of surface tension, leaning into the interplay between interior and exterior, utilitarian and abstract.
Together, these artists create objects that press against the limits of their forms—where edges meet, surfaces fracture, and materials quietly resist. Surface Tensions invites us to slow down, to notice, and to question the delicate spaces where making and meaning converge.
