UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Stephanie Quayle
” LIVING SOIL: Scared Animal ”

November 4 (Wed) - December 20 (Sun), 2026

Gallery 38 is pleased to present “LIVING SOIL: Sacred Animal”, Stephanie Quayle’s first solo exhibition at the gallery in three years, opening on November 4 (Wed).

Stephanie Quayle was born on the Isle of Man, where she continues to live and work. Set in the Irish Sea, the island is a place where animals and the land remain close to everyday life. For her, animals are not subjects to be observed from a distance, but beings with whom we share the same ground. Through animals, she has long explored what it means to be human. When we look at them, we often search for something of ourselves. We recognize something familiar in a glance or a gesture, while sensing, in the movement and vitality of their bodies, something we cannot fully understand. She does not try to close that distance. Instead, she turns her attention towards the animals themselves and, in doing so, turns the question back on ourselves.

Humans have drawn and shaped animals since the earliest forms of image-making. Why have we continued to depict them for so long? Part of the answer lies in the history of our relationship with them: as food, as creatures to fear, and as beings we have lived alongside. The new works in this exhibition take inspiration from animals depicted on ancient vessels. Perhaps she is drawn to these forms because she senses in them something of the close and vital relationship between humans and animals.

Her process begins with numerous drawings. As she builds up lines, Quayle looks not only for the animal’s form, but for its movement, weight and the direction it might turn in the next moment. While that feeling is still alive, she moves into clay. The lines that travelled across the paper take shape in three dimensions through the movement of her hands and arms. Clay does not conceal the fact that it has been touched. It gives way under pressure and, when stretched, keeps the trace of that movement. Moments of contact, force and release remain visible on the surface. She does not smooth these traces away, but allows them to become part of the animal’s body. Her process also draws on materials such as straw, hay, wool and stone, connecting her work to the land around her. Standing before the sculptures, we sense an animal’s presence rather than a likeness of it. The clay retains the movement of the artist’s hands, yet the form seems on the verge of shifting or stirring. Within a form made by a human body, another living being begins to emerge. This strange sense of closeness is central to Quayle’s work. The earth itself is central, too. Clay comes from the ground and is reshaped by human hands. Looking at the marks of fingers and arms left on its surface, we are reminded that the human body is part of the earth as well.

In everyday life, we have fewer opportunities to touch soil directly. We may also encounter animals more often through photographs and moving images than in person. And yet, our bodies still retain something of what it is to live as animals. Quayle’s work brings this back as a feeling that is still with us.

The animals made for this exhibition ask us to stand before them, to notice the marks left by hands on the clay and to feel the force held within their bodies. From there, we may begin to feel again our connection to the soil, the earth and other living beings.

Stephanie Quayle
1982 Born on the Isle of Man, British Isles
2005 Graduated in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art
2007 Completed an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art

She currently lives and works on the Isle of Man.

Selected exhibitions:
“From the Ancient to the Present Times VI” (Gallery 38, Tokyo, 2026); “Animal Instinct” (Gallery 38, Tokyo, 2023); “Concrete Jungle” (CADAN Yurakucho, Tokyo, 2021); “Drawings” (Gallery 38, Tokyo, 2020); “Bear Nature” (Gallery 38, Tokyo, 2019); “URBAN JUNGLE” (Gallery 38, Tokyo, 2017), “Sculptural Ceramics and Stone” and “Spring Group Show” (both Pangolin Gallery, London, 2017); “Jenga” (TJ Boulting, London, 2016), “Small is Beautiful” (Flowers Gallery, London, 2016), “Summer Exhibition” (Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2016); “A Woman’s Hand” (Saatchi Gallery, London, 2015), “Vita Vitale” (Venice Biennale, Italy, 2015), “Art Paris” (Grand Palais, Paris, 2015); “ANIMAL” (POST, Tokyo, 2014), “START ART FAIR” (Saatchi Gallery, London, 2014), “Small is Beautiful” (Flowers Gallery, New York, 2014); “LION MAN” (TJ Boulting, London, 2013), and “Stephanie Quayle” (Nantenshi Gallery and t.gallery, Tokyo, 2013), among others.

Exhibition Details:
Stephanie Quayle
“ LIVING SOIL: Sacred Animal “

Dates: November 4(Wed) ‒ December 20(Sun), 2026
Opening hours: 12:00‒19:00
Closed: Mondays, Tuesdays and national holidays

Artist present: November 4(Wed)
Opening reception: November 4(Wed), 18:00‒20:00

During Art Week Tokyo, the gallery will open at 10:00.
November 4(Wed) ‒ 8(Sun), 2026
ART WEEK TOKYO
BUS STOP: F7

Venue: Gallery 38
2-30-28 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Tel: +81(0)3-6721-1505
Email: contact@gallery-38.com