Emily-Kriste Wilcox

Emily-Kriste is a Birmingham-based ceramic artist whose hand-built vessels explore the relationship between landscape, memory and material. Working with slab-built white earthenware, she approaches clay as a painter approaches canvas, creating one-of-a-kind pieces that bring elements of the natural world into contemporary interiors.

Inspired by coastlines, skies, seas and rolling hills, Emily’s work captures a sense of place through layered surfaces, expressive mark-making and a carefully considered palette. Soft blues, greens and greys often predominate, punctuated by subtle accents of colour that evoke changing weather, shifting light and the atmosphere of the landscape.

Her distinctive style combines painterly surface treatments with influences drawn from dressmaking patterns, colour juxtaposition and the historic tea caddies of the V&A collection. Her forms provide a canvas for impressionistic narratives of texture and colour, informed by her interest in the art of repair and assemblage reflected in her method of construction.

Each vessel undergoes a carefully developed making process, often involving multiple firings and layers of decorating slips to achieve depth, richness and complexity of surface. No two pieces are alike; each is individually handcrafted and treated as a unique painting in clay, reflecting a particular moment, mood or memory of the landscape that inspired it.

Discover more about Emily-Kriste’s practice here: https://www.contemporaryceramics.uk/in-conversation-with/emily-kriste-wilcox/