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.
Ian was born in Birmingham - a city famous in its past for guns, cars, motorbikes and jewellery: a city of makers. He studied ceramics at the Central School of Art, London. His teachers included Gordon Baldwin and Dan Arbeid who encouraged skills and making of all types, from hand-building to industrial techniques as possible means of artistic expression. Ian’s own teaching and exhibiting in the UK, Europe and the Far East has provided opportunities to produce work as a response to different places and cultures.
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.
Sara Dodd is a Welsh ceramic artist living and working in North London. Training at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Sara graduated in 2013 with a BA(Hons) in Ceramics. Sara is interested in sky and landscapes often referencing the regions of South Wales where she grew up. Sara has recently begun exploring the passage of time in relation to these ideas and locations.
Ruth's pots are built using sheets of soft clay, her dedication to the art and process of making, from construction to firing, has given rise to very particular work. Within this particularity lies a thought -provoking tension. While the pots are structured with great intention and tailored to contain space, their formal concerns are softened by an underlying sensuousness, best experienced by the all -important sense of touch. The vapours that caress each piece in the kiln create an inextricable link between the form and the smooth, rich and complex tones that articulate and enhance the pots' surfaces.
Annabel was born in Germany and spent several years of her childhood in Egypt before coming to England in 1956. She discovered clay at Farnham Art School on Saturday morning classes in the early 1960s. After leaving school in 1967, she attended Winchester Art School, where she was introduced to conceptual art and concrete poetry, and then Croydon College of Art. She went on to gain a BA(Hons) in Sociology and a PhD in Lesbian History at Essex University, then introduced and taught Lesbian Studies at Birkbeck College for two years. In her early 40s, she returned to her first love of clay, as one of the initial students on the City Lit Ceramics Diploma course in 1989.
The Peak District Pennine landscape and seasons are the backdrop to everything Timothy does. He makes pottery on the border between function and sculpture: in essence vases, bowls, bottles and cups, though these are really just what he calls 'serving suggestions'. His work is multiple-fired, often starting with the wood kiln and ending with lustres.
