elspeth owen
Work featured: front cover; EO71, opposite page clockwise from top left; EO14, EO16, EO31, small pots left to right; EO72, EO75, EO74, EO73, EO82, three larger pots EO57, EO60, EO18, book EO67
elspeth owen Elspeth Owen is a potter who has, over the years, developed her own understated language of resistance, simply in the act of making her delicate, nuanced and intensely felt work. Few have such a direct empathy for hand-built clay, from the abstract qualities of the pot at its most basic and pure (imbued with some of the texture of the earliest containers), to the soft coloration of its surfaces. Yet these are forms with their own distinct sense of lift and weightlessness. Through their paper-thin walls or crisp rims, through their balance and demeanour as they rest on a surface, these objects concentrate the mind – pods, bowls and other shapes made through simple processes of pinching or rolling out, the addition of slips and then patient burnishing th before firing. She has made other items, other types of vessel, for example moon-shaped rattles, and pillows, these sometimes inscribed. Each form is very tactile and suggestive of broader tactile environments (of sound as well as touch). Owen’s landscapes are domestic and enclosed as well as natural and open. Though not an explicitly ‘political’ potter, Elspeth Owen epitomises the importance, now more than ever, of being a free-thinking artist, in an age when we too easily conform. She would hate to be part of any conformity, any establishment. Through her well documented journeys, the Odyssean walks she undertakes (that make one think of Richard Long, and writers Th from William Cobbett to Roger Deakin would surely have appreciated this aspect of her quiet radicalism), her other committed activities and her potting, she exemplifies independent thought, gauging and re-gauging our relationship, our connectedness to a broader firmament of earth and sky, poetically encapsulated in these spheres, ellipses and globes of clay. There is a cyclical aspect to Elspeth’s life and year, carrying out self-set tasks and initiatives that help her to measure and to link to that bigger world. This is what her pots and their gentle energies can impart, a distillation of this connectedness - David Whiting January 2014 ene
Published by Oxford Ceramics Ltd. ©Oxford Ceramics Ltd. 2014 Oxford Ceramics Gallery, 29 Walton Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX26AA www.oxfordceramics.com tel: (+44) 01865 512320 Photography & Design Michael Harris, ©Michael Harris 2014. Introduction ©David Whiting 2014
elspeth owen Solo & group exhibitions include: 2014 - Oxford, Oxford Ceramics Gallery: solo exhibition 2013 - St Ives, New Craftsman Gallery 2012 - Oxford, Oxford Ceramics Gallery: solo exhibition 2010 - London, Hart Gallery: solo exhibition 2008 - London, Contemporary Applied Art: The Cup 2008 - London, Hart Ha Gallery: solo exhibition 2007 - London, FLOW gallery & Carmarthen Oriel Myrddin gallery: Llif 2006 - London, Hart Gallery: solo exhibition 2005 - Rufford Crafts Centre: Naked Clay 2004 - London, Hart Gallery: solo exhibition 2003 - London, Galerie Besson: Constructed Clay 2003 - London, CAA Galery: The Cradle of Civilisation 2002 - Ruthin Craft Centre: Cent Diaspora Cymreig 2002 - London, Hart Gallery: solo exhibition 2002 - Koblenz, Germany: Salt Glazed Ceramics juried international show 2001 - Cambridge, Clare Hall: The Weeping Woman installation solo exhibition 2001 - Kirchberg, Switzerland, Kunstforum: Smoke-ďŹ red Ceramics 2000 - Philadelphia USA, Helen Drutt Gallery: solo exhibition 1999 - London, Hart Gallery: solo exhibition 1999 - London, Galerie Besson, Millennium Mugs 1999 - Llangefni, National Eisteddfod of Wales 1998 - Amsterdam, Netherlands, Babel Gallery: Global Ceramics 1998 - Cambridge, Primavera: Coming Round Again: solo exhibition 1997 - Philadelphia, USA, The Works Gallery: British Craft 1997 - Zagreb, Croatia: World Triennale of Small Ceramics commendation 1996 - Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery: Artists Journeys installation 1995 - London, Hart Ha Gallery: Treasure installation solo exhibition 1995 - Cambridge, Kettles Yard Open: Dry Tears installation 1994 - New York, USA, Nancy Margolis Gallery: solo exhibition 1994 - Banff Center for the Arts, Canada: Open End solo performance
1993 - Rufford Craft Centre: Handbuilt Ceramics 1992 - Taipei, Taiwan, National Gallery: International Ceramics 1991 - London, Galerie Besson: solo exhibition 1990 - Norwich, Ipswich and Koblenz, Germany: Looking East 1989 - Stockholm, Sweden, Galerie Lejonet: Brittiska Keramiker 1989 - Auxerre, France and touring Europe: L'Europe des Ceramistes 1988 - Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art A Gallery: BP Craft Fellows Exhibition 1998 - Manchester City Art Gallery: Out of Clay 1998 - Aberystwyth, Ceramic Series: solo exhibition 1987 - Leeds, City Art Gallery ,Craft and Design Centre: solo exhibition 1986 - London, Crafts Council at the V & A: solo exhibition 1985 - Cologne, Germany: Ceramics from England 1984 - Cambridge, Primavera: solo exhibition 1983 - Cambridge, Kettles Yard: Henry Rothschild's Exhibition
Public Collections include: Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales Kunstmuseum, Hamburg, Germany Leeds City Art Gallery, UK Cleveland Studio Pottery Collection, UK Cl Bolton City Art Gallery, UK Buckinghamshire Museum, UK Dean Clough Contemporary Art, Halifax, UK Hawkes Bay Museum, New Zealand Deidesheim Ceramics Museum, Germany Paisley Museum, Scotland Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland Abe BA at Gatwick, UK
Work featured: previous pages; left to right; EO54, EO83, EO63. These pages left to right; EO3, EO18, EO13, EO9, EO23, EO24, EO31, EO29, EO30, EO38, back cover left to right; EO25, EO26, EO21
Oxford Ceramics Gallery, 29 Walton Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX26AA www.oxfordceramics.com tel: (+44) 01865 512320