Caro and Capper Sculptures Rise in Oxfordshire Fields
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- "Heavy Metal" pairs Anthony Caro's reclaimed-steel works with kinetic sculptures by James Capper at Albion Barn and Fields in south Oxfordshire, using machinery and parts salvaged from factories, shipyards and farms.
- Anthony Caro, who died in 2013 and helped create London's Millennium Bridge, is represented by "Erl King" (a ship's anchor fashioned into a helmet-like form), "Star Flight" in galvanised steel, and "Slow Passage" built from a cattle crush with red-painted sections owner Michael Hue-Williams compared to Mondrian.
- James Capper's sculpture "IRIS" features a repurposed industrial grabber that mechanically opens like a flower, while another piece inside a converted tractor barn perches fierce-looking nipping blades on a girder like squaring stag beetles.
- Capper originally applied to weld for Caro, who instead told him to return to his own studio; Capper now sculpts from a studio on an old military airfield in Wiltshire, and the catalogue frames the pair's relationship as an intergenerational dialogue.
- Michael Hue-Williams, owner of Albion Barn and a well-known art dealer, hosts the show in woods planted by his late father Giles as a rewilding project decades before the term became fashionable — Giles was killed by a swarm of bees while working in his orchard.
- Lucca Hue-Williams, Michael's daughter and founder of central London gallery Albion Jeune, jointly curated the show, calling the tucked-away Oxfordshire setting "a hidden gem" that is "very British but fun."
- The exhibition is free with advance booking, open Thursdays and Fridays, not suitable for under-12s (with 12–17-year-olds requiring adult supervision), and deliberately has no gift shop or café — though a thatched pub over the garden wall is reportedly picking up extra trade.
Why it matters: The show gives art collectors a route to buy significant Caro works through dealer Michael Hue-Williams while letting the public wander Caro's and Capper's pieces for free, but its rural, no-frills setup — no café, no shop, under-12s barred — signals a curated collector's experience rather than a mass-market attraction.
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