Upcoming Exhibitions

Norfolk VIII

Wednesday 28 October — Sunday 1 November 2026 

10.00am—5.00pm — The artists will be there to talk to. 

Eight distinctive contemporary artists have come together to present art in a setting steeped in history.

Lesley Munro, Kate O’Grady, Charlotte Vawden, Mary Lowden, Marion Stuart, Paul O’Grady, Pip Colyer and Caroline Shove.

Spanning a rich diversity of disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics their voices present East Anglia's strong tradition of creativity to the public.

Unspoken — New Works by Sophie Eade & Marion Stuart

Exhibition Dates: 24 November — 5 December 2026

Open: 10.00am—5.00pm daily, closed Sunday

Private View: 5:30 - 8.00pm — 27 November 2026

The Crypt Gallery, Norwich, presents Unspoken, an exhibition by artists Sophie Eade and Marion Stuart, bringing together paintings, ceramics and works on paper. Exploring their shared interest in text, transcription and the quiet charge of language, both artists consider how words and their meanings shift when moved from page, conversation or thought to surface. Withheld, their works carry text which is often difficult to read, partially obscured or embedded within layers of slip, glaze, paint and mark making. Meaning sits in plain sight, but not always immediately accessible. The viewer is invited to look closely, to navigate the tension between what is written and what is meant.

The ceramics in Unspoken hold words pressed, carved or transcribed into stoneware and wild clays. Some phrases emerge clearly; others dissolve into surface. The paintings echo this approach, using text, gesture, repetition and erasure to test how language behaves with canvas and colour. Together, the works form a conversation about communication — its failures, its hesitations and its quiet insistence.

Eade and Stuart both work at StudioDo, a ceramics space in Norwich, where their studio practice is shaped by discussion, shared problem solving and a mutual interest in how materials carry thought. This exhibition reflects that ongoing dialogue: two distinct practices meeting at the point where text becomes form.

Unspoken invites audiences to consider how language is held, altered and sometimes lost — and how meaning can remain even when words slip out of reach.

Socials / Websites:

https://www.sophieeade.uk/

@sophieeadepots

https://www.marionstuart.co.uk

@marion.stuart

Statements:

Sophie Eade: My work is autobiographical. It is influenced by the environments I happen to find myself in, work, domestic, landscape and studio.. This is also true of materials I have to hand.

‘Environment is everything’

I often find myself carrying too much and being weighed down, both physically and emotionally with burdens of expectation, trauma  and responsibility, as well as the shopping… The noise of life overwhelms me, making it difficult to think. My Art practice works as a cathartic means to breath out, un pack, and edit.  I use what I have and make do, trying to unburden myself, using up  inherited, gifted found objects and materials, to ‘off load’ emotional baggage.

Being diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 40  made sense of the disconnect I feel with ’normal’ and has influenced the use of text in my Art practice. I can tell the stories disguised behind the aesthetic of archeological curiosities, creating new relics to carry the burden.

I try not to purchase materials although specific found materials demand the purchase of specialist equipment in order to facilitate their use and my curiosity, ie purchasing canvases in order to use gifted , inherited or found paint.

Marion Stuart: Norwich-based ceramic artist, educator and maker whose practice centres on the expressive possibilities of porcelain and clay. Working across sculpture, installation and functional ceramics, she explores themes of memory, place, narrative and personal history through a material that is both fragile and resilient. Her work often incorporates text, drawing and surface mark-making, creating pieces that balance delicacy with strength and invite reflection on the relationships between object, story and experience. Stuart exhibits nationally and internationally, with work held in private collections worldwide and public collections including The Archie Bray Foundation, USA, and the Museum of Aveiro, Portugal. Alongside her studio practice, she has developed a reputation for creating site-responsive installations and sculptural projects that engage with community, landscape and heritage. A committed educator, Stuart co-founded Studio Do in Norwich in 2011, an open-access ceramics studio and educational space that supports makers at all stages of their creative development through courses, workshops and collaborative projects. Alongside her individual practice, Stuart collaborates with Scott Stuart under the name Humbleyard ceramics, producing functional ceramics inspired by the colours, textures and landscapes of Norfolk. Through both her artistic and educational work, she continues to explore the capacity of ceramics to connect people, places and shared histories.