Two Exhibitions at Charleston Explore Magic, Myth and Modern Critique

A new exhibition at Charleston, Lewes, presents the work of two artists — Quentin Bell and Olivia Sterling — in adjoining shows that a review published by The Guardian describes as united by a shared "magic touch," despite starkly different styles and themes.

According to the review, Bell, a ceramicist who died in 1996, was the son of Bloomsbury group painter Vanessa Bell and the biographer of his aunt, the writer Virginia Woolf. The review states that Bell devoted much of his life to creating pots, plates, figurines and drawings inspired by myth, magic and fantastical imagery, including newts in ponds, levitating women and knights on horseback.

The review traces the origin of this fascination to an experience Bell had at age nine, when relatives took him to a magic show. There, he reportedly witnessed a woman appearing to float in the air — an image the review says stayed with him for the rest of his life and shaped decades of his creative output.

The review notes that while Bell "was not a great artist," his lifelong commitment to depicting a world he saw as magical gives his ceramics a distinctive charm and strangeness that the exhibition celebrates as part of a life dedicated to creativity.

In an adjacent gallery, the exhibition showcases the paintings of Olivia Sterling, which the review characterizes as "bawdier" and "weirder" than Bell's work. According to the review, Sterling's paintings form a critique of race and power, offering a contrasting but complementary perspective within the same venue.

The pairing of the two artists at Charleston allows visitors to move between Bell's fantastical, decorative ceramics and Sterling's more confrontational paintings, according to the review, which frames the exhibition as an exploration of how different artistic approaches can each possess their own kind of "magic touch."

Further details about the exhibition's run dates, specific works on display, and additional context were not specified in the available source material.