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.
Jane is a self-taught ceramicist and began coiling and smoke firing over 30 years ago. She worked for many years as a lecturer in art specialising in ceramics and finds inspiration in neolithic landscapes and artefact. Living on the Somerset/ Wiltshire border provides rich source material.
The meditative simplicity of coiling is a fundamental part of her practice. Jane is fascinated by the universality of clay and how it lies at the heart of the human experience. She travelled widely in Africa researching the spiritual use of clay and visiting remote pottery communities, running workshops in the Namibia and Kalahari deserts with funding from the British Council.
Adam Frew creates functional porcelain pieces and large one-off pots. His pieces are clean, traditional, forms thrown on the potters wheel that subtly show the makers hand and create a sense of life from the craftmanship of his work.
Jaejun Lee is a Korean ceramicist based in the UK. After completing both his BFA and MFA at Seoul National University, he moved to the UK from South Korea in 2018 on a Tier 1 ‘Exceptional Talent’ visa from the Arts Council England. He specialises in porcelain and makes both artistic and functional ware. He aims to communicate a message of functionality and beauty through his work. Jaejun wishes for the objects to enrich and enhance people’s everyday lives.
Collecting and arranging manmade and natural forms provides Claire with great enjoyment and creative impulse for her making. Crucial to her creative process is her discipline of drawing and keeping a continuous sketchbook of ideas and studies. Sculptural forms have emerged through extensive research and exploration of alternative hand-building techniques. Smoky and painterly surfaces envelop her ceramic forms and are integral to the whole.
Martin describes his work as ‘ Clay – Water – Wood – Fire – Space’. These five elements are synthesised to create a reversed trompe-l’œil type of work, seemingly excavated or revealed, and simultaneously diminishing the third dimension.
Katie studied ceramics as part of her degree in Cheltenham and went on to teach in secondary education specialising in ceramics. Drawn to working with clay from a young age and inspired by the landscape and seascape around where she lives, Katie is particularly influenced by the manmade and natural marks in the environment. She enjoys the nature of the material and the meditative quality of hand building, as well as the malleable quality of clay which retains a sense of the maker’s hand.