Contemporary Ceramics gallery and shop exhibits the greatest collectable names in British ceramics along with the most up and coming artists of today. Our distinguished makers are all carefully selected members of the Craft Potters Association.
All of our makers are members of the Craft Potters Association and each of them have a story to tell.
Annabel discovered clay at Farnham Art School through Saturday morning classes in the early 1960s. After studying at Winchester Art School and Croydon College of Art, she later gained a BA(Hons) in Sociology and a PhD in Lesbian History at Essex University. In her early 40s, she returned to ceramics as one of the initial students on the City Lit Ceramics Diploma course in 1989.
Annabel’s work is rooted in a fascination with the gradual transformations caused by corrosion, erosion and weathering. Living on a stretch of the Sussex coast, she is drawn to the surfaces and structures found in coastal and edgeland environments, where the effects of time, exposure and neglect create unexpected forms of beauty. Popular seaside amenities sit alongside abandoned industrial sites and forgotten structures, their remnants continually reshaped by salt, wind and sea.
As a child, Jon loved drawing and messing about with mud. He and his brother and friends spent many joyful years roaming and exploring on the waste ground of empty housing plots. The exposed seams of soft yellow clay they discovered was perfect for making ‘weapons’ - squashed balls of clay on the ends of sticks. Although childhood has long passed, the activity has informed and inspired his approach to ceramic practice and his educational/community engagement work.
Mandy Cheng’s focus is on porcelain and to make pots that are unique ergonomic forms. Her works are designed to be graceful and minimalist, to conjure a feeling of lightness and a sense of movement.
The signature mesmerizing patterns mimic the vivid diversity of nature. Using the nerikomi method, the patterns are meticulously prepared by repeated cutting and layering of plain and coloured porcelain sheets.
Agalis Manessi is a ceramic artist working from studios in London and Corfu, where she was born. After studying ceramics at the Central School of Art & Design, she was inspired by the teachings of Gordon Baldwin, Eileen Nisbett and Dan Arbeid who encouraged her enthusiasm for the plastic qualities of terracotta clay. After graduation she set up a studio in Hackney where she was a founding member of Broadway Ceramics and taught in further education. In 2018 she relocated her studio to Kennington in south London.
Walter Keeler is a British studio potter specialising in salt glaze pottery. Named 'Welsh Artist of the Year' in 2007, Walter's work is held in public collections including Victoria & Albert Museum, American Craft Museum, New York, and the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
Claire creates decorative smoke-fired pots. She chooses to use porcelain due to its strong resistance to wild temperature changes during the smoke-firing process. Her pots are not functional nor suitable for holding water due to the porous quality of the unglazed burnished clay which is necessary for smoke-firing.
