3. Xanthe Somers, Fruits of Our Forefathers (2022), at Galerie Revel
A first time exhibitor at Collect, Bordeaux-based Galerie Revel is an exciting showcase of emerging talent. Unmissable in its Collect display are the large-scale ceramic vessels by Zimbabwean sculptor Xanthe Somers, whose glazed stoneware works bedecked in vibrant colors and motifs are at once pleasingly playful and thought-provokingly poignant. The 120cm-high Fruits of Our Forefathers (2022) combines African wax fabric with sculpted hands and cherries—a fruit Somers only saw in books when growing up in Zimbabwe, and which she uses as “a symbol of British culture in Zimbabwe,” she says. “The false dreams sold as progression and Christian emancipation by the British colonists are still prevalent – and are passed down through generations of remaining privilege, hence the title.”
