Holder Up

Ro Robertson
Holder Up

1 May – 14 June 2025

Opening Reception: Thursday 1st May, 6–8pm

Maximillian William is delighted to present Holder Up, a new body of work by Ro Robertson, their third solo exhibition at the gallery. Drawing upon a working-class history of bodily engagement with the materials of heavy industry, Robertson channels the physicality of industrial labour through performance, drawing, riveted steel collage, and welded steel sculpture, reinterpreting its gestures into rhythmical abstract form.

The exhibition’s title is drawn from the artist’s great-grandfather’s role in the shipyards: a ‘Holder Up’ – someone who was responsible for bracing red-hot rivets in place while they were hammered overhead into steel structures. Within a contemplative process of working with generational memory, Robertson considers the sculptural legacy of working-class people.

Working-class people working in heavy industry learned more directly than anyone about a heightened awareness of force, scale and the relationship between body and material – I draw on this understanding which is embedded deeply in my sculptural practice.

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