Solo Exhibition at Aspex Portsmouth, 2025
Stories Held was a solo exhibition by Hollie Thornley at Aspex Portsmouth, running from 23 July - 19 October 2025 as part of the gallery’s contemporary program.
The exhibition draws its core theme from the landscape, material memory and tactile traces embedded in Thornley’s ceramics. Beginning with the act of foraging clay from the ground beneath her feet, the works on display articulate an intimate dialogue between place, touch and making, where material origin and the physical gestures of hand are inseparable.
Throughout the exhibition, handcrafted vessels and forms, shaped through ancient techniques such as pinching and coiling, reveal a rich interplay of texture and narrative. Each object carries the imprint of both its gathered source and the intuitive process of its creation, inviting viewers to consider how clay holds stories of landscape, body, and memory within its surface.
By situating her work within the gallery’s program alongside group and thematic shows, Stories Held marked a significant moment in Hollie’s practice, one that foregrounds her ongoing exploration of the relationships between raw, local materials and the poetics of everyday form.
