Project: June Hamper

December 1 – December 20, 2014

White Columns is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of the work of June Hamper.

Now in her late 80s, and based in Whistable, Kent, England, June Hamper has been making her terra-cotta pots for the past thirty years, occasionally in collaboration with her son, the artist and musician Billy Childish.

In a statement about his mother Childish says:

“My mother June Hamper started making pots at the adult education center in Rochester, England, when she was in her early fifties. Previously she had sometimes painted, liking the work of van Gogh, Munch and Picasso amongst others. My father – who left the family home when I was seven – was quite alarmed at this independent development and referred to it as my mother entering her “second childhood”.

June had always encouraged me to paint as a kid and I likewise encouraged June in her pottery. In the early 1980s my father was arrested for drug smuggling and I convinced my mother that it might be time to actually divorce him, as he’d already been largely absent for thirteen years. During this period June’s pottery took on a more angst-ridden look and she made pots after Munch’s ‘Scream’. She continued to pot up until last year and we sometimes worked together on designs. Now at eighty-seven she hasn’t been strong enough to build pots this summer, but hopes to make new pieces this coming spring.

Over the years many pots have been lost and broken and the shards lie scattered about her garden. I’ve endeavored to save a few good examples and some of those are on show at White Columns today.”

– William Hamper (aka Billy Childish)

White Columns would like to thank June Hamper, Billy Childish and Steve Lowe (L-13, London) for making this exhibition possible. White Columns previously presented Hamper’s work at the 2013 ‘Sunday’ art fair in London.