27 September 2025 – 11 January 2026
David Nash Nature Wisdom opens at Ruthin Craft Centre on Saturday 27 September 2025 and runs until 11 January 2026. This new show brings together over sixty years of Nash’s sculpture, prints, drawings and films in an epic exhibition to celebrate his eightieth year.
Internationally renowned sculptor David Nash has been living and working in Blaenau Ffestiniog since 1967. Known for his work in wood, he only uses trees that have fallen naturally or had to be felled for reasons of safety, disease or age. He makes work from the green wood, carving and sometimes charring pieces. Nash uses a whole tree, quarrying the ideas as well as the material to waste nothing. Frequent motifs include columns, vessels, crosses, eggs, and the platonic solids – sphere, cube and pyramid.
A student of nature, Nash has allowed natural processes to lead him in ideas – beginning works that nature completes or complies in. For example, the Crack and Warp Column is cut when the wood is green and then left for the natural drying process to create the final shapes and curves.
A large-scale sculpture from cork oak bark will be installed in the courtyard which will begin to be constructed on the 16th of September.
Curated by Gregory Parsons, this show celebrates and illuminates David Nash’s work to date and introduces a new generation to this important contribution to culture.
