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.
Valerie studied fashion and textiles at Brighton and Bristol art colleges. Valerie’s art is about a combination of brushstroke and knowledge of colour acquired through a lifetime of painting. Ken learned to pot with potters in Bristol and London and has had a long association with potters throughout the country in his work for the craft ceramic materials industry and kiln manufacturing.
Born and brought up in Norwich, Richard has been making pots since the early 1970s. After studying for two years at Great Yarmouth College of Art, he worked from 1974 to 1980 at Le Dieu Pottery in Norwich before spending 3 years in Australia and New Zealand, and a further five in Germany.
He is inspired by Hungarian and Romanian slipware from the 1800s and by English country pottery. Recently his work has explored colour and abstract patterns in strong forms that capture the ebb and flow of the sea and the landscape of South West Dorset.
Suzanne began working with clay while accompanying her husband during their years living in the Middle East in the 1960s and 70s. She came to make clay her home ground and something she could take with her wherever she lived.
She discovered Oribe ware – Japanese tea ceramics associated with the Kaiseki meal and tea ceremony – whose glazes and playful geometric decoration greatly influenced her aesthetic. She ultimately decided to import English porcelain clay so she would have continuity wherever she worked and for the same reasons travelled with a small electric kiln.
Carina trained as an industrial designer in Germany and specialised in furniture design. One day she found herself at a ceramic studio near her house. She had a sudden realisation that there was no difference between making a teapot or a chair because it's all about aesthetics: form, function, balance, and proportion.
Carina had no formal ceramic education and through apprenticeship, short courses, and residencies she has learned and worked with different clays in different parts of the world. She explores the potential and qualities of each clay body, a continuous conversation unfolding between the maker and the material.
Penny Fowler is a London based potter whose work reflects 21st century living in the capital. Using porcelain and bone china clays, her work is characterised by clean, precise lines and forms using a strong palette.
Mark makes black and white domestic slipware using a combination of traditional craft and modern industrial ceramic techniques, in a contemporary take on Staffordshire slipware. Currently, he is developing his tableware and large functional work into sculptural one-off pieces.
These include slab built, stacked designs for sculptures which depend on gravity to interlock. He is also experimenting with platinum lustre transfers to exploit the differing reflective qualities of glazed and lustred surfaces.
