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.
Duncan’s fascination with clay began as a child in his parents’ garden. The colour, smell and malleability of the earth led him to discover at school the transformation of clay by heat into a permanent object. As a teenager, Duncan was captivated by seeing his teacher throwing a pot on a kick-wheel, his bedroom posters were images of communist revolutionary heroes and 20th-century studio pottery.
Being brought up close to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park has been a gift and an education to James from a very young age. The aesthetic of Barbara Hepworth’s work is almost ingrained in him, as though it were the basis of his consciousness of texture, proportion, line and form. After completing a foundation course at Dewsbury Art College, James spent two weeks in the ceramics department working with renowned Raku Ceramist David Roberts. He was immediately drawn to clay as a material. Later, upon graduation from Loughborough and then the Royal College of Art in 2001, James set up a studio in London for several years before returning to his native Yorkshire in 2005.
Ben Arnup’s interest in ceramics started at home. With a sculptor and a potter as parents, he grew up learning ceramics skills and technology. Ben has exhibited in Britain, Europe and America, his work is represented in public collections in Britain and Germany.
Recalling traditional Staffordshire mantelpiece ornaments crafted from casts of discarded domestic ephemera, Creamware, press-moulded, individually animated elements bonded at leather hard stage. Traditional Staffordshire glazes.
Gilles makes a variety of functional and one –off thrown stoneware pieces. His forms are freely manipulated on the potter’s wheel, some are altered and joined to construct taller larger pieces, other have incised marks applied to the soft clay revealing a subtle and tactile quality to the work, carrying a sense of captured sculptural movement.
Simon’s porcelain collection is a series he made based on his experience while on a residency in Jingdezhen, China. The series mixes modernity with the millennia-old heritage of Chinese porcelain. The work features hand painted brush strokes that capture the energy and artistry of traditional Chinese calligraphy.
