Jack Doherty was born in Northern Ireland and studied Ceramics at the Ulster College of Art and Design, Belfast. On graduating he worked at Kilkenny Design Workshops before establishing his studio in Co Armagh in 1978. He was Chair of the Craft Potters Association for 12 years, a founder member of Ceramic Art London and has been guest editor of Ceramic Review magazine. His work is exhibited internationally and is represented in many public collections in Ireland, the UK, Europe, Japan and China.
Doherty questions the role of clay objects and considers their changing place in a contemporary world. His vessels are based on the archetypal ceramic forms, pots for holding, storing and keeping safe but for him, the concept of function is ambiguous and multi-layered containing the qualities of both art and utility.
Using his signature soda-fired porcelain, new for this exhibition Jack has made a series of ‘Guardian Vessels’ with folded rims and drawn surfaces. He has also been working on a group of spherical forms, carved and heavily textured, some to be held in the hand, others large and bold.
Sue’s work draws on the quiet resilience of trees and bones—forms shaped by time, marked by fragility and carrying memories of growth and decay. Through slow, receptive hand-building, each piece develops as if guided by an internal rhythm. Textured surfaces hold lines like weathered stories, while a soft matte glaze evokes a sense of calmness.
‘My hurt, my joy, my scars, my healing, all shape the work I create in clay.’ – Sue Mundy
Jenny Southam hand builds figurative sculptures in terracotta clay. She delights in exploring colourful gestural mark-making over their surfaces. This painterly decoration aims to echo the emotional resonance of each piece.
“When I enter the studio I am searching for that serene state of absolute absorption that making and drawing can gift us, which we all wish will, in some manner, enrich our audience.” – Jenny Southam
In a career spanning nearly 50 years, ceramicist, Sophie MacCarthy has developed a unique and distinctive personal style. Through her subtle and bold use of coloured slips, painterly brushwork, stencils and wax-resist, she evokes the colours, forms and movements of the passing seasons. Often focusing on the ground, she finds beauty in the accidental compositions created by wind-blown leaves, stalks and detritus sometimes gathered around a storm drain or scattered over concrete and tarmac, juxtaposing the vibrant colours of the natural world with the gritty textures of the urban environment.
‘She has a poetic insight into the natural world’ David Whiting
Throughout his long career Peter has always sought pathways to the development of new ideas. Often this is a slow process, but sometimes a particular event speeds things along.
Partaking of two residencies in China recently, where Peter worked in porcelain at high temperatures, led him to develop a new body of work, made alongside his existing practice to which Peter is still deeply committed.
This new exhibition represents the outcome of Peter’s working practice.
'This exhibition explores objects that express a quiet equilibrium: fragile, shifting forms that exist in a state of delicate imbalance. Their stillness is easily disturbed, as if the act of holding too tightly might cause something essential to disappear. The works reflect an interest in forms that resist perfection, remaining slightly unresolved, unsettled, and quietly alive.' Akiko Hirai