Kai Althoff Goes with Bernard Leach

Kai Althoff stages ceramic works by modernist potter Bernard Leach in poetical mise-en-scènes at the Whitechapel Gallery

German artist Kai Althoff (born 1966) is renowned as a figurative painter and creator of all-encompassing poetic environments that incorporate textiles, photographs, drawings and artifacts. Althoff draws from a wide range of literary, cultural and artistic influences in his work, and for his unique display at Whitechapel Gallery in London he pays tribute to British potter Bernard Leach (1887-1979), selecting around 20 of Leach's ceramic vessels and tiles from the 1920s onward to be displayed in specially designed vitrines.

As a counterpoint to Leach's own work, Althoff presents his own new paintings and sculptural installations, as well as recent pieces that bring together fabrics, found material and paintings inspired by Japonisme.