Two exhibitions at Charleston, Lewes, pair Quentin Bell’s eccentric ceramics with Olivia Sterling’s provocative paintings. Bell’s work is judged technically uneven but compelling for its lifelong commitment to magic, myth and creativity, while Sterling adapts similar fantastical ideas into sharper examinations of race, sexuality and power.

Bell’s exhibition spans sculptures, ceramics, drawings and illustrations made from the 1960s to the 1990s, including recurring images of levitating figures inspired by a childhood magic show. His colourful plates, pots and later cups are more successful than his figurines and narrative drawings, but the work’s anachronistic, distinctly English character gives it charm. Sterling’s larger, darker paintings use cartoon imagery, food and exaggerated bodies in unsettling scenes that connect theatrical magic with social and racial power dynamics.