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.
Since graduating from the celebrated Harrow Ceramics course in 1994, Daniel Smith has worked from the same London studio he helped establish. This continuity is reflected in his work with a commitment to exploring a family of useful forms - plates, bowls, cups, jugs, vases.
1949 – 2024
Karen began making pots in the early 70s. She completed a degree in chemistry at University College London, then worked as a computer programmer before she discovered ceramics and quickly realised that ceramics was her real vocation. As a largely self-taught ceramicist, Karen worked briefly for a production potter in Yorkshire, then moved back to London and in 1977, set up her first pottery in Hackney, East London.
Her work captures her imaginary life and real life, which overlap. She used to pretend to live as a ‘normal’ person in society but wildness took over the thin veneer and it consumed her. Once she started making sculpture, all those layers of pretention fell away. She was finally one whole person.
Anne Butler trained in Ceramics in the University of Ulster and the University of Wales in Cardiff and now works from her studio in Northern Ireland. The Eclipse vessels are inspired by the light and shadows cast in the urban environment.
John Jelfs' work has been widely exhibited in leading galleries including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Alpha House in Sherborne, Beaux Arts, Bath, Rufford Ceramics Centre in Nottingham and is also included in many collections in the UK and abroad.
John left art school in 1970 and dug trenches for gas pipes for a living. Later, through his college friend’s brother (who was a potter) John worked for David Frith in North Wales. He found the discipline hard, but it has stood him in good stead ever since.
