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.
Gaynor Ostinelli and Paul Priest, or Ostinelli & Priest, are well known for their animal sculptures which draw on both domestic and wildlife. Exhibited around the world, their work is represented in numerous galleries, public and private collections in the UK and overseas. The animals and mythical figures they sculpt vary as their subjects, and the demand for the work, expands.
All Francis' work is thrown using stoneware clays and is reduction fired, increasingly turning to salt glaze for his desired surface. Functional pots are his main concern, pots made for use in daily life, often giving a nod towards other historical objects, not necessarily made of clay, featuring utilitarian components now ultimately defunct but repurposed as decoration. He uses a muted palette of glazes and seeks a balance between looseness and definition in his forms.
Loretta began her practice in ceramics via a career in graphic arts, textile design and sculpture. During pregnancy, she found working on sculptural forms too heavy and moved across to ceramics. That was the start of her fascination with the medium as it allows her the freedom to explore her enduring passions of form, colour, texture and mark-making.
Ashley Howard creates porcelain vessels informed by east Asian and homespun pottery traditions. His pieces draw from his interest in ritual vessels, the spaces they occupy and the ceremonies that surround them.
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.
Since leaving Camberwell College of Art in 1988, Justine has been primarily working with hand-built porcelain. Her work addresses the boundaries between function and decoration. Form is paramount to her, function is a driving motivation, but it is the aesthetics of a piece that are key to her making.
