Mary Rose Young
Mary Rose Young soon identified Art as her favourite subject at school and went on to study at Cheltenham and then Wolverhampton Art College, electing to specialise in Ceramics. Her work there was brown and grey, slab built and contemporary. But despite it being so different to her current style she was extremely highly thought of and achieved a Class 1 Honours Degree. Her college days coincided with the Punk Rock revolution and, thrilled with the opportunity to flaunt convention and shock everybody, Mary Rose was the first to dye her hair and don jumble sale attire. She was also very attracted to the Mod Movement 2 years later and one of her Degree projects was based around scooters.
It was after college that she suddenly found the inspiration to reinvent her style. She and her partner moved into yet another old house and were immediately set the challenge of making damp old rooms with peeling wallpaper look great without spending any money. Mary Rose’s answer was colour, every wall no matter how pockmarked was smothered and she started to create pieces of pottery that were as colourful as possible to decorate the mantelpieces and window sills.
By 1982 she was taking her pieces to Bristol every weekend to sell at a street market, in 1983 she set up her first workshop. By 1987 she’d started to attract the attention of shops and in 1989 she started getting orders from American Department Stores. In 2020 Mary Rose is still exporting her unique designs to the United States.
Mary Rose Young
Mary Rose Young was born in Uxbridge UK but didn’t stay there for very long… her childhood was a restless one with her parents moving frequently from one old house to the next. By the time she arrived in Lydney at the age of 12 she was already moving into her 12th family home. To imagine her as a child watching her parents constantly painting rooms and reinventing interiors on an extremely low budget almost helps partly explain how her colourful style evolved.
Her parents had fallen in love and eloped 2 years before she was born. They had defied conventional 1950s custom and their re-marriage always had the scent of secrecy about it. This encouraged an “us against the world” atmosphere in the family home and Mary Rose grew up ready to flaunt convention and proud of her own individualism.
She soon identified Art as her favourite subject at school and went on to study at Cheltenham and then Wolverhampton Art College, electing to specialise in Ceramics. Her work there was brown and grey, slab built and contemporary. But despite it being so different to her current style she was extremely highly thought of and achieved a Class 1 Honours Degree. Her college days coincided with the Punk Rock revolution and, thrilled with the opportunity to flaunt convention and shock everybody, Mary Rose was the first to dye her hair and don jumble sale attire. She was also very attracted to the Mod Movement 2 years later and one of her Degree projects was based around scooters.
It was after college that she suddenly found the inspiration to reinvent her style. She and her partner moved into yet another old house and were immediately set the challenge of making damp old rooms with peeling wallpaper look great without spending any money. Mary Rose’s answer was colour, every wall no matter how pockmarked was smothered and she started to create pieces of pottery that were as colourful as possible to decorate the mantelpieces and window sills.
By 1982 she was taking her pieces to Bristol every weekend to sell at a street market, in 1983 she set up her first workshop. By 1987 she’d started to attract the attention of shops and in 1989 she started getting orders from American Department Stores.
Gallery 54 – The Premier Art Gallery in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
A fine collection of contemporary abstract art set within a 17th Century listed building.
Gallery 54 is accessible to everyone who enjoys viewing paintings, ceramics and glassware.
The 17th century building has been sympathetically restored to revitalise the quality and solidity of its natural building materials. Fusing original features with clean-lined contemporary design, Gallery 54 provides a space with an understated elegance and quirky appeal.
The exhibition space consists of two discrete floors balanced and accessed by an open stairwell gallery. The stairwell creates an open house ambience and displays artworks in a homely situ.
The strength of Gallery 54 lies in the calibre and integrity of the collected art. The viewing experience is energised by the juxtaposition of old and new. Contemporary abstract art backs on to the inherited architecture, off-setting modernity with sculptural period charm.
Gallery 54 currently exhibits work from over 20 artists. Some garnered from rich local talent, whilst others are national and international artists. Although the works lean towards, or securely belong in the abstract/modern genre, this does not limit their diversity.
All the artists share a keen aesthetic sense, absorption in interrelations of space, form and colour and evident joy in the suggestive ambiguity of abstract art.
Current artists include Alison MacGregor Grimley, Daniel Calderwood, Jo Jenkins, Mary Rose Young, Stuart Ellis, Amanda Hemmer, Duncan Johnson, Joanna Mayne, Rachel Sudworth, Zoe Taylor, Annica Neumuller, Fausta Scarano, John Maxwell Steele, Stephen Rippington, Celia Johnson, Isobel Mitchell, Maria Pierides and Steve Payter
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Gallery 54
54 High Street
Ross-on-Wye
HR9 5HH
01989 567 917
info@gallery-54.com
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