Six ceramic artists putting their own spin on tradition
We know it would be impossible to list all of the ceramicists who are producing something new and unusual when the very nature of creating an object with your bare hands means that every attempt is an experiment (especially because of clay’s unpredictable nature). There are thousands of ceramic artists doing wonderful things to subvert tradition in their own way, but allow us to whet your whistle with a very digestible round-up of six creatives. These are people who are taking a concept and an art form that’s rooted in the past and whether through their method of making or decorating, they make it feel new and distinctive. This is where in some cases, inexperience can really pay off.
1/6Pollyanna Johnson
Pollyanna Johnson first grabbed our attention with her hand-painted plates that aren’t how they appear at first glance. For example, take the detailed portrait of a 17th-century queen surrounded by the wry statement ‘Be a Lady, They Said’ (taken from the impactful recent poem of the same name). Those early pieces stemmed from Pollyanna beginning to notice the subtle expressions of female subjects in historic portraiture, combined with her love of 16th- and 17th-century ceramics, and an urge to create a response to the sexism she had experienced. Now best known for her tongue-in-cheek expressions on clay, Pollyanna originally studied painting and she treats ceramics as just another canvas to work on, “because using domestic objects such as plates feels less grand and more playful”. The result is clever, funny, powerful and downright beautiful to have on display. Pollyanna’s exclusive new collection for Partnership Editions will be available from the 23rd of February.
2/6Claudia Rankin
Claudia Rankin’s mood-boosting, slightly mad ceramics are always an irresistible draw during a visit to 8 Holland Street (where there’s usually a small selection of her pieces). You couldn’t miss them if you tried – zingy yellow glazes, cross-eyed tigers, awkward birds leaping off candlesticks. They’re all a bit wonky and childlike in the best possible way. As a child, Claudia spent many afternoons exploring the V&A’s ceramic collections, which kick-started her love of colour, motif and historical narratives – all elements explored in her work. But where does she dream up such hilariously whimsical creatures? Claudia says “Whenever I need a boost of inspiration, I always find treasure in old auction catalogues. Antique Japanese and Chinese porcelain can be the freshest, most crazily animated art you could imagine. Recently I’ve been making my own versions of Foo Dog pairs, which I hope encapsulate that spirit of comic menace!”
3/6Bettina Ceramica
Bettina Ceramica had a sell-out launch last year with a small edit of mostly white ceramics sourced from traditional artisans around Italy. In this case, founder Natalie Sytner doesn’t make the objects personally but there’s a strong nostalgic connection to each piece as they’re the familiar ceramics she knows well from childhood. Natalie grew up in a home full of treasures collected on travels around Italy with her Italian mother, and Bettina Ceramica was born from the realisation that these traditional ceramics could be brought out of the archives and presented in a way that felt contemporary and fresh. A piece that might have seemed ordinary in a Puglian home – such as the classic white Cavaliere lamp base – has an entirely different appeal when photographed in a minimalist steel kitchen. Bettina Ceramica isn’t reinventing the [pottery] wheel, they’re just taking objects that your nonna might consider old-hat and bringing them back to life.
4/61690
1690 ceramics are made by artist Sophie Wilson, who admits that she hadn’t studied ceramics since A-level, where she had the opportunity to work with clay but instead chose to go in the direction of paper and cloth. That is until recently, when Sophie taught herself in a pottery studio after becoming frustrated that she couldn’t find the ceramics she wanted, followed by the realisation that she could have a go at making them. Sophie’s beautiful and useful objects don’t fit with any trend-driven Instagram aesthetic, nor are they created to turn heads by being provocative; instead they’re made to reflect the interests, instincts and humanness of their maker. Sophie says about the way she decorates her ceramics that she was inspired by “Matisse and the quickness in the way he painted”, so she wanted to reproduce that spontaneity and lightness, to not fixate on the details and instead allow a viewer to piece the image together whichever way their brain chooses.
5/6John Wheeldon
John Wheeldon was a recent discovery made during one of our jaunts to The New Craftsmen, where his striking tulipieres stood out as being almost bodily – like ventricles from a heart – and especially beautiful for their clean creamware glaze, which allows the flowers and the shapes they create to take the spotlight. Less of an ‘Instagram sensation’ than other ceramic artists, John is an experienced ceramicist with a particular fondness for early 18th-century pieces and his work references these but in contemporary colour palettes. In fact, it was an 18th-century Dutch tulipiere that inspired the series of objects that John created exclusively for The New Craftsmen, with the finish steered by their suggestion of a traditional creamware glaze. Our tip is to invest in these now, before tulip season really gets into the swing,
6/6Alma Berrow
No one makes the idea of a decorative ashtray full of cigarette butts, discarded chewing gum and the odd gold tooth appeal quite like Alma Berrow. Daughter of a successful ceramicist, Alma started making ceramics with her mum during lockdown as a way to pass the time and experiment and what began as a creative outlet has ended up with a 31k-strong Instagram following and instant sell-outs of any pieces she makes available for sale. Ironically, Alma studied fashion while trying to find a niche of her own in a family of creatives and it was cigarette-shaped buttons that she made for a jacket which led to the ashtray pieces she’s best known for. Alma says inexperience was crucial in a way “because I had no classic training, I didn’t start with a mug or a vase, I just took a lump of clay and made what I felt like – it didn’t feel restrictive. I was a smoker trying to quit, so the first things I made included a lighter, a fry-up, cigarette butt buttons, a matchbox – all probably tapping into my identity and a trompe l'oeil effect done in a more modern and playful way”.
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