Cathy's Art Diary

Surprising fair at Glynde Place specialising in ceramics. I say surprising as it was huge! Having been to an event at the house before I expected a few stalls around the house but instead it was set in marquees in the extensive grounds. We had gone to see our friend Eve Shepherd’s sculptural work and were pleased to see she had won a prize. However, we also discovered lots of beautiful and enticing things. I was so tempted to buy but resisted as I already have more small bowls and mugs than a girl will ever need. The visit was enhanced by it being a gloriously sunny day. Closed 24 May 2026

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at Maiolica ceramics. Suzanne Higgott, who had previously worked at the museum, led us though the history of Maiolica using the collection as the bones of the talk. I have been wanting to dip my toe into this world for a while and this was an excellent introduction to the subject. She started by discussing its origins and influences then looking at how it was made, talking us through the process of glazing and adding lustre. Next we worked through the main centres of production in Northern Italy and some of the more famous workshops. She showed us some beautiful examples and used them to introduce the main themes of decoration. I was interested to see how many were based on prints and how the topics reflected were the same as paintings of the time. She ended by discussing the 19th century revival which led to reproductions some of which were passed off as originals and collectors and museums vied to get the best pi...

Interesting exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery bringing together ceramics by the comedian Johnny Vegas and ceramicist Emma Rodgers. Vegas did a degree in art and ceramics and has returned to the studio three decades after he graduated. Having met Rodgers at the gallery their joint show explores ideas of mental and physical metamorphosis. I loved Vegas's piece "Broken Angel" in which an angel cradles her broken wing. I would like to know more about his method as this appeared to be a 3D print. I'm not sure why I feel differently about this than say a bronze which is also a reproduction of another piece. Rodgers work shows more of the hand of the maker. Closed 27 June 2025

Calm exhibition at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of new work by Adam Buick. The pieces were all the same satisfying shape in various sizes. Evidently, he incorporates stone and locally dug clay into his work which reminded me, as an idea, of a display I’d seen in another show earlier in the day by Kim Norton. I loved the very prefect shape of the work and the pale, textured glazes. Closed 29 March 2025

Charming exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showcasing the ceramics collection of Henry Willett. Usually to be seen at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery the collection aims to tell a popular history of the British Isles through the pottery found “on the mantlepieces of many cottage homes”. I have seen the collection in Brighton, donated in 1903,   but not really looked at it in any detail. Here it was shown with pieces Willett had given to the Victoria and Albert Museum and shown under the 23 categories he had defined. I do love ceramics and was intrigued to see such a wonderful cross section of popular subjects from crime, through celebrity to religion. Highlights included this portrait of Princess Charlotte, a jug commemorating the guillotine and of course a Sussex connection in a jug advertising a builder in Lewes. Closed 25 September 2024  

Excellent discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the craft of pottery. The event brought together YouTube potter Florian Gadsby and Rose Schmits of ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ to be led in discussion by Nancy Durrant. They talked about how they both got into the craft and whether they considered it a craft or art. They talked about the technicalities of the work from the role of the ‘kiln gods’ to potters’ ankle as well as the role of social media in selling their work as Schmidts said “more people will see the image than the finished work”.

Beautiful exhibition at Contemporary Ceramics of new pieces by Matthew Chambers. These were mysterious layered works creating rounded sculptures. I really couldn’t work out how they’d been made so I loved not only their look but also their mystery. They were in lovely pale but unusual colours with a Matt finish.   Closed 27 April 2024  

Intriguing exhibition at the Design Museum on the work of Attua Aparicio who has been chosen as this year’s Ralph Saltzman prize winner. The prize goes to someone whose work points to a new direction in design and Aparicio was chosen for her creative approach to waste materials. Aparicio mainly works in ceramics but had started including borosilicate glass, which is used in industry and is not recyclable, in her work. In some cases this is applied to found ceramics or failed pieces from ceramic factories. I am a sucker for both ceramics and glass so I loved this work aesthetically as well as finding her ideas fascinating. Closes 15 April 2024  

Joyous exhibition at Eames Fine Art of ceramics by Anita Klein. I know Klein as a printmaker so was delighted to find she also does ceramics in her vibrant colours with comfortable female figures. I noted a number reflect the prints I saw in her last show about swimming during lockdown. It was strangely a good pendant to the Antony Gormley which just staggered out of, as that was all about the male body expressed in a male way whereas this was about the female body as only another woman can express it. You look at them and image what it feels like to be that person. I liked the vases and large platters best as they gave more space for the figures but I also like miniature vases of female heads and shoulders with a hole in the top of the head for flowers which continued the composition. Many thanks to the lady who was still setting up for letting me stay once I’d barged in and for chatting when I couldn’t contain myself from talking about the work. Closed 28 January 2024

Charming exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of ceramics by South-African Hylton Nel. The plates and bowls read like a diary going around the room marking events and people and drawing on a variety of ceramic traditions. The work looked good en mass but it was also well worth viewing it slowly to take in the lovely details of the work. A lovely additional touch was that Nel had been invited to pick pieces of ceramics from the house for a small installation in the neighbouring room. Closes 10 September 2023 Review Guardian  

Colourful exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of pieces by married artists Betty and George Woodman. This American couple bought a house in Italy where they went every year to make art. Betty mainly did ceramics and George painted but the show looked at how they influenced each other’s work and how it drew from the light and countryside around them. The show was beautifully arranged so the pieces set up dialogues between each other. The feel of the work was very similar to that of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell who worked together at Charleston itself. I loved the vibrancy of the work, particularly this screen, and the way the pieces worked together. Closes 10 September 2023

Delightful exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showcasing the creativity and innovation of British art potteries and their artists. Ceramics were an essential ingredient of fashionable ‘artistic’ homes in the late 19th century and this show used pieces from the collection of Ian and Rita Smythe donated in 2018 to explore the genre. I liked the fact it was arranged by pottery with neat biographies of the artists. There were also a couple of interior settings which gave an idea how the pieces would work together. Closes 25 September 2023

Wonderful exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of contemporary art using ceramics. It was all shown quite sparsely with few barriers so you really interacted with the work. The pieces either seemed to be bright and colourful or white and serene and they worked well together. Of course there was obvious people like Grayson Perry and Edmund de Waal and I was pleased to recognise Rachel Kneebone too. Shout outs go to Emma Hart’s abstract pictures in ceramic set into windscreen shaped frames and Klara Kristalova’s installation of 18 fairy/mythical figures in a landscape of vegetation which gave off a beautiful smell.   I think my favourite was five life sized scenes from a house taken over by bugs and mice by Lindsay Mendick. I should have found it horrific but I loved it. The show with lots of artists to look out for in the future and an reactivated love of ceramics. Closes 8 January 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting exhibition at Two Temple Place looking at the ceramic traditions of Black women. The show also looked at the evolution of ceramics from purely domestic objects to fine art. In places the story could have been told more clearly however it is a difficult venue to display in so information boards were not always directly with the display cases they referred to. The show started by looking at the work of Ladi Kwaki   and how the pottery of the Gwari ethnic group is taught in female line There was a large section on the Pottery Training Centre set up by Michael Cardew, a pupil of Bernard Leach in 1950 founded the   centre. He aimed to introduce ceramic techniques to men to make for new middle class market. The show also focused on people who had trained at the centre and their legacy such as George Sempagala who worked in Uganda. Upstairs there was a section called the Politics of Clay, which looked at how three contemporary artists have looked at clay in a rad...

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapapes on the Enlightenment potter Josiah Wedgewood. Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and x-MP for Stoke Central, talked us through the life and innovations of Wedgewood based on the biography he has recently published. I’d missed seeing Hunt talk at Charleston Farmhouse so I was delighted to get another opportunity to hear him. In fact the friend who went to the Charleston talk bought me a signed copy of the book as a Christmas present. Hunt talked us though many of Wedgewood’s innovations from cream ware through to Jasperware in ceramics, his new marketing techniques, his development of canals and his introduction of a production line to the ceramic industry. He also looked at his radical politics from support for the American and French revolutions but more importantly his campaigning for abolition of the slave-trade in particular popularising the “Am I Not a Man and Brother” image designed by William Hackwood. He ...

Delightful online lecture from Artscapades on Madame de Pompadour and her collecting of Sevres porcelain. Dame Rosalind Savill, former director of the Wallace Collection, took us through the history of the output of the Serves factory by focusing on what was purchased and commissioned by Madame de Pompadour. There was an emphasis on work which featured flowers and she used this as a way of discussing the role of flowers and gardens at the time. I’m not a fan of elaborate porcelain but I came away with a better understanding of it and of the life of the woman who collected it. I loved the intricate purposes of some of the vases particularly one in which you grew bulbs in season but out of season you put porcelain flowers in with potpourri in another section to provide scent. I also liked the square tubs for indoor or outdoor shrubs. I’ve just reported a Mother-in-Law’s Tongue and am on the look out for a new pot for it!

Innovative exhibition at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery by Neil Brownswood exploring early ceramic industrialisation through contemporary art. Using a timeline of objects and archaeology Brownswood examined the early technologies and thirst for experimentation and reacts to them with a series of finished and on-going new works disrupting traditional ceramic skills with digital technology reflecting the fact we are in the midst of our own industrial revolution. Unfortunately when I was there no-one was working but I guess from the section in one corner that sometimes there were live demonstrations and the commentary said that the artist is working on projects with digital experts and former ceramic industry workers. A lot of the work investigated experimentation and failure. I loved a long installations of waste ceramic flowers in white piles and 3D printed objects the one shown here blending scans of ceramic objects and disrupting them in the print process, I think. I am...

Imaginative exhibition at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery using items from their collection to illuminate the story of Alice in Wonderland.   The show was beautifully designed and the objects displayed to illustrate specific sections of the narrative in a delightful way. Of course, being Stoke it was heavy on ceramics, but there is nothing wrong with that and the range of wares was fascinating. I loved the combination of pieces from stuffed animals, through playing cards, ceramic cakes and paintings. I could have lived with the creaking clock at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party which became quite irritating after a while. It didn’t help that it combined with building noise while we were there.   Closed 7 November 2021    

Elegant exhibition at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of new work by Ashraf Hanna. These were vases with clean lines often with black or cream exteriors and contrasting bright interiors. A lot of them were egg shaped with their sides cut down in crisp straight lines and manipulated. Two of them looked like a woman’s torso. There was a wonderful bright yellow glaze which contrasted beautifully with the black and a lovely dark purple one. Closes 16 October 2021

Fascinating online discussion from London Art Week looking at the history of Renaissance Maiolica as seen through the collection of the Bargello in Florence and pieces from the Detroit Institute of Art. There was as an impressive panel chaired by Katherine Zock, Director of the Friends of the Bargello and consisting of Timothy Wilson, Professor of the Arts of the Renaissance, Oxford, Alan Darr from Detroit Institute of Art and a dealer Justin Raccamello. They picked significant pieces which outlined both the history of the ceramics concentrating on Medici pieces and also of their collections. Sometimes this type of format can become a bit of an insiders talk but all of them talked clearly about their pieces for the amateur and had a lively discussion handing over to each other with ease even on Zoom. I had not come across Medici porcelain before so was particularly interested in those pieces. I could get seriously into Maiolica!