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.
Marcio Mattos became fascinated with clay after seeing an exhibition of tea ceremony bowls at the V&A museum many years ago. He went on to train at Richmond College and later for a degree at Goldsmiths College. He presently creates one-off sculptural vessels and plaques in black stoneware and porcelain paper clay with dry-glazed textural surfaces and brushed decoration.
Chloë is based in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. After studying Fine Art Ceramics (BA Hons.), achieving a Higher Diploma in Art Education, and completing her MA in History of Art and Architecture at the University of Limerick, Chloë moved to Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny to complete the Design and Crafts Council’s two-year pottery skills training course.
Geoffrey Swindell was born in Stoke-on-Trent. First studying painting, it wasn’t until he took up a summer job at the Pottery at Alton Towers that he decided to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor and become a potter.
Agalis Manessi is a ceramic artist working from studios in London and Corfu, where she was born. After studying ceramics at the Central School of Art & Design, she was inspired by the teachings of Gordon Baldwin, Eileen Nisbett and Dan Arbeid who encouraged her enthusiasm for the plastic qualities of terracotta clay. After graduation she set up a studio in Hackney where she was a founding member of Broadway Ceramics and taught in further education. In 2018 she relocated her studio to Kennington in south London.
Nicola’s pottery is the culmination of 35 years making ceramics since studying Painting at Central School of Art and training at Aldermaston Pottery with Alan Caiger-Smith. She continues to work in tin-glaze, having perfected six main colours from vibrant coral and yellow through vivid greens and blues to soft purples. Her brushwork designs are inspired by the natural world, predominantly leaves, flowers, fruits and birds also sea creatures that all dance over the pearl white surface.
Ben’s work is mainly hand-built, wheel-thrown and altered using stoneware, porcelain, and high fired earthenware clays. Forms seek to utilise and respond to the malleability of the material with work being altered and assembled while still wet.
The majority of his work relies exclusively on the interaction between ash, clay and fire achieved through extended wood firings in an anagama type kiln. However, recent pieces are exploring the potentials of using earthenware clays to bring out the character and attitude in the work.
