PHIL GOSS: THE FERRY TO KADIKOY: An exhibition of paintings accompanied by a series of hand-built and glazed ceramic works inspired by a recent trip to Istanbul.

8 Holland Street is delighted to present PHIL GOSS: THE FERRY TO KADIKOY, an exhibition of paintings accompanied by a series of hand-built and glazed ceramic works inspired by a recent trip to Istanbul.

The exhibition grew from a research trip Goss made to Istanbul, prompted by his interest in the writing of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk and his descriptions of the city. Spending a week walking the banks of the Bosphorus and often taking the passenger ferry connecting the eastern and western sides of the city, Goss filled sketchbooks with observations of the city and its inhabitants.

“I was particularly interested in the characters who would congregate along the shore, hanging out, fishing, talking, waiting for things to happen. The figures seemed to share a mysterious camaraderie with each other and with the river.

Drawing for me is about recording chance encounters between myself and things I see. Some of the things I drew were inky rivers, lost boats, empty hotels, distant mountains, the ferry, stray dogs, moving from west to east and back again, mackerel sandwiches, mosques and shopping centres, people killing time, donkeys, birds in Wooden cages, ancient buildings amongst the trees, a Bosphorus cruise, snooker on the tv, trees in winter….”

After returning to his studio in Bristol these images started to develop, images would combine with each other so a birdcage from his hotel became a building on the hill side. He used ink painting and woodblock printing to simplify the forms, searching for imagery that talks about a place in an essential and powerful way with out trying to mimic it.

Alongside the works from Istanbul there are is a series of works that come from sketches made on Iona, Scotland in 2025, whilst Goss was visiting the island there was a gale and he enjoyed sketching the waves exploding on the rocks and the turbulent see surrounding the island.

The paintings are accompanied by hand-built and glazed ceramics, extending the imagery across different surfaces and forms. The interaction between the ceramic works and paintings creates a theatrical atmosphere in which fragments of landscape, memory and observation move between two and three dimensions.

Phil Goss (b.1984, Bristol) is a multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, textiles and installation. After studying English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, he completed an MA in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art. His practice investigates how a subject can unfold across multiple media. He has exhibited throughout the UK, including at the V&A Museum, Rye Art Gallery and Josh Lilley Gallery, and is currently Director of the Centre for Recent Drawing, London.