The exhibition explores the theme of fertility— the wonderment and beauty of life and growth, and how we coexist in the environment in which we live.
‘Lifelines,’ is Northampton Museum and Art gallery’s first major stone carving exhibition by Nicolas Moreton taking place from January 17th to March 22nd.
Based in Blakesley, near Towcester, Nicolas is best known as a traditional figurative carver who draws powerful emotional currents from one of the world’s oldest materials.
His work has been exhibited widely throughout the UK, Europe, and the United States, and is held in collections worldwide.
The upcoming exhibition has two strands celebrating human life and the force of water.
“‘Lifelines’ aims to bring us back to consider the wonderment of life through the flow of blood and water. Both co-exist; both if kept healthy creating a better sense of wellbeing and harmony, are vital animated forces that pulsate and meander, often unseen, but a presence that feeds and regenerates us.”
The new exhibition will take over both wings of the L-shaped gallery, presenting a body of recent work.
It is planned that the gallery’s end walls will be painted blood red and blue with lines running throughout the space, giving each piece its own space in which to shine.
Visitors to the upcoming exhibition may initially think they are encountering the work of two different artists, Nicolas comments.
“This show is interesting because if you don’t know my work, you might think two artists are exhibiting. One wing showcases the Bloodline — my figurative work — while the other presents Waterline, which is organic and abstract.”
One of the jobs of an artist is to express their unique perspective on the world and Nicolas does this in a powerful and unflinching approach.
He does not shy away from creating sculptures about the pain of birth, the joy of a suckling baby, or the raw fecundity of life.
In this collection Nicolas expertly carves both figurative and abstract forms, delighting in the movement, rhythm, pattern and textures to express his distinctive world that nevertheless speaks.
Lifelines
Central to the exhibition is a piece entitled Lifelines, one of Nicolas’s most recent works and a pivotal crossover between his figurative and abstract practice.
It will be the first sculpture viewers will encounter at the top of the museum’s stairwell.
The piece initially reads as a seed-like, organic form and the sculpture reveals different meanings depending on how it is viewed and positioned. Some see a child cradled in a basket; others see a vessel or a boat.
It depends on the perspective you come from,” Nicolas explains. “It’s about incubation for nine months — that journey from the human to the outer world it’s about to inhabit.”
The work has no fixed base, something Nicolas refers to as his “free-flowing sculpture.”
“You can upturn it completely and not see the child at all, or place it upright and suddenly the baby becomes very clear,” he says. “I like that mystery — you don’t quite know what’s going on.”
That sense of discovery is central to his philosophy of making. Moreton believes sculpture should invite engagement before explanation.
“Art should be there to make you think a little,” he says. “I don’t like the fact that people have to read a label first to interact with the work.”
For him, the experience of encountering sculpture is instinctive and physical.
Good sculpture is like walking into a room full of strangers — you’re drawn to the person who looks interesting and think, ‘I’d like to talk to them,’” he says. A strong sculpture always draws you back, because you want to keep that conversation going and discover more about it.
Themes of parenthood run strongly through the exhibition, shaped by Moreton’s own experience as a father. One particularly tender work depicts a mother breastfeeding her child, carved from a soft, pale English stone.
“The child is almost swimming onto the woman — caressing and suckling. It’s very intimate and very gentle.”
For Nicolas, the act of nurture remains endlessly astonishing.
“I still find it miraculous — that sense of nurture and growth that women have,” he reflects. “It’s a timeless image.”
Fatherhood has in the past, also influenced the imagery he has chosen to carve. Sculptures of fathers carrying children on their shoulders captured moments of everyday intimacy and joy.
“There are images I wouldn’t have carved if I hadn’t had a child,” he says simply.
His powerful fertility figure, No Desert Rose Ever Bore Petals so Exquisite, handcarved from Kilkenny Limestone has been shown only a handful of times since its creation. Monumental and unapologetically primal, the sculpture depicts a female form swollen with life.
“She’s full — full to bursting — about to give birth.”
The figure’s multiple breasts are deliberate rather than symbolic excess. Drawing on ancient mythologies and archetypes, the sculpture speaks to fertility as a universal force.
“It’s about the fertility of life — ancient gods and goddesses, multiple meanings,” he says. “It’s a strong, striking, primitive image.
Nicolas’s commitment to carving as a slow, physical discipline underpins everything he makes.
“I initially fell in love with carving as it slowed me right down to begin to understand form, process and technique.
It’s a reductionist process, so you can never add back on and that makes your mind much more critical as to what you are doing,” he says.
“Some people look at my work and comment that there is too much graphic nudity and it’s intention is to shock.
“If I wanted to shock, I’d just put a picture on the wall. Carving takes a long time.”
That time — and the care embedded within it — is evident throughout the exhibition. Whether abstract or figurative, intimate or monumental, Moreton’s sculptures ask the viewer not just to look, but to linger, to return, and to reflect.
As he puts it, “Good sculpture makes you want to interact and return for further conversation.” And in this exhibition at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, Nicolas offers exactly that invitation.
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery Guildhall Road NN1 1DP
17 January – 22 March 2026
Open Tuesday- Saturday 10am – 5pm Sunday 12am – 5pm
PRIVATE VIEW and PRESS VIEW 17 January, 2026,2 – 4pm RSVP
Artist Q&A with Cheska Hill Wood, Director David Messum Fine Art. 31 January 2:30pm
Current or Recent Exhibition Spaces and Commissions
He shows with David Messum Fine Art and has major public works in London ,Dublin, Yorkshire and Milton Keynes. In 2025 he was commissioned to undertake the memorial for the late Pauline Bewick which is now sited on the banks of the Caragh Lake in Co.Kerry,Ireland.
His sculptures have also been displayed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Selected Past Exhibitions:
New College, Oxford: A major career retrospective, “Making a Mark,” was held in the Cloisters and Chapel from 2021 to July 2022.
National Tour: In the mid-2000s, his work was part of a national touring show around English cathedrals, including Gloucester, Lincoln, and Manchester.
Royal Academy: He has exhibited at the Royal Academy.
To view more of Nicolas’s work visit: https://www.nicolasmoreton.com/