3 minute read
Thrown Gallery 8
Emerging Potters – 26 Thrown Gallery at Collect 2022
Tom Kemp
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After the show
Three lucky winners from the rising stars of the ceramic world were chosen from over 25 entrants to ‘Fresh’ at the British
Ceramics Biennial (BCB) in 2021.
The Biennial is a flagship exhibition of the festival, which took place in Stoke-on-Trent from 11 September to 17 October 2021.
The three won Fresh Talent Residencies which were awarded during the BCB festival. The residencies will take place through partnerships with Staffordshire University and Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre, in Denmark, with the selected artists then showing their work in the 2023 BCB festival.
From YouTube tutorials and community workshops to degree programmes and apprenticeships, Fresh 2021 celebrates the rich and diverse learning opportunities that are shaping ceramics today.
The works featured in the exhibition celebrate the unique learning pathways of each maker, artist and designer. Some discovered clay as a child, some whilst studying in the community, others through college and university. They are united by their intention to embark on careers within the ceramics field, and by their extraordinary achievement.
These are personal journeys in clay, which cross cultures, continents and forms of expression. Each artist opens our eyes to the vast material possibilities of the medium. Their artistic discovery expresses the courage of new beginnings, providing what we need at this moment in time. Dorcas Casey, Nico Conti and Leora Honeyman were chosen as this year’s Fresh residency winners.
Dorcas Casey, a sculptor interested in ideas around dreams, stories, intuition and memory, will undertake a residency at Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Center.
Leora Honeyman’s residency with the British Ceramics Biennial will see her develop her sculptural, abstract forms that combine clay with different materials and making processes.
Nico Conti, whose delicate work embraces the tradition and heritage of his upbringing in Malta and sees him pairing clay with 3D printing technologies, will take up a residency at Staffordshire University.
Left top: Leora Honeyman, Installation.
Left, bottom: Dorcas Casey, Leeches 2019.
Below: Nico Conti,
Emerging Potters – 26 Fresh January – March 2020
Dorcas Casey
Pain for Home, 2020
“I am a sculptor interested in ideas around dreams, stories, intuition and memory. I began working with clay in 2018 whilst studying for a Masters in MultiDisciplinary Printmaking in Bristol.
I have a curiosity about materials and am only beginning to explore the freedom that working in ceramics can lend to my sculptural practice. Since starting to experiment with ceramics I have realised that it can be many materials at once. It has so many different states. I would love to make ambitious large-scale ceramic installations in the future”.
BA Fine Art (Sculpture), Winchester School of Art (2011)
MA Multi-disciplinary Printmaking, University of the West of England (2019)
Leora Honeyman
Shelf Thing, 2021
“My journey with ceramics began in 2017 with a series of coil pots. Dug from wild clay, these vessels represented a symbolic process of reconnection to my diverse roots.
During my M.A. at the RCA, I have been testing ceramic making processes in search of potential for innovation. The coil building has continued within the digital process of ceramic printing. As a designer, I often speculate on cultural habits. This results in pieces which seek to re-imagine ‘use’ and give space to 'other' world-views”.
BA Interior Architecture, University of Brighton (2003)
Currently studying Masters in Ceramics and Glass, Royal College of Art
https://leorahoneyman.studio
