Clay in Conversation 4: Risk is the fourth in a series of curated conversations, presenting artists working with clay and ceramics
Clay in Conversation runs in partnership with the Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CREAM), University of Westminster and is held at:
University of Westminster, Regent Street, London, W1B 2HW
The curated conversations provide a platform for presentation, dialogue and discovery, bringing together a diverse range of artists with a practice using clay and ceramics.
Each conversation centres on a specific theme - acting as a lens through which the artists will present a piece of work or project. The conversations offer the opportunity to dig deeper into a single work, exploring it formally, materially and conceptually, from the perspective of the artists themselves.
The presentations are followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Clay in Conversation is curated by artist Julia Ellen Lancaster in partnership with the Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CREAM), University of Westminster https://cream.ac.uk/
For this fourth conversation we are very excited to present artists Elena Gileva and Rebecca Griffiths, with Tessa Peters acting as chair.
Elena Gileva is a London based artist focusing on the decorative, historical and ornamental through the medium of ceramic, sculpture and installation. Gileva takes the wonder of plants, trees and wood ash as a departure point for a glut of subjects and questions to arise: movement and migration; what does it mean to make for each participant, what is an artistic exchange. In order to explore these possibilities, Gileva’s wood ash glaze experiments served as a red thread of exploration. An inherent morphing from geometric into organic, served as a backdrop to showcase the magic of wood ash chemistry. Phosphorus, present in the ashes of organic origin and which is essential in plant and animal growth, is the mystic element responsible for the diverse and unexpected effects achieved in wood ash glazes. For Gileva, this foray into the alchemy of glaze mixing is what brings the making and the thinking together, concepts of trees and plants in their obscurity manifest in the multitude of glass surfaces on top of pots and sculptures.
Gileva graduated from MA Ceramics Royal College of Art and BFA Fine Art Parsons Paris School of Art & Design. Previous exhibitions include; Elena Gileva & Jeltje Laborneman, Centre Ceramique Contemporaine La Borne, France, 2022, Elena Gileva & Nicolas Roggy, Galarie du College Marcel Duchamp, France, 2022, Le Vase comme Vecteur Culture, Le Don du Fel France, 2021, White Conduit Projects London Art Fair, 2020, Design Museum Ghent, Belgium, 2020, Nakanojo Biennial 2019, Japan.
Rebecca Griffiths is a London based artist and member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Her work explores issues around industry, design and mass production and its impact upon our sense of self and our environment. For Clay in Conversation Griffiths will present her current project, encompassing a recent residency at The Red House in Suffolk and work for the upcoming AWARD, British Ceramics Biennial 2023.
Her work borrows forms and structures from the world of product and industrial design, rebuilding them in clay and combining them with layers of disruptive glaze or sculptural detail. She works with the monumental and architectural possibilities of clay whilst creating experimental glazes and layers of ceramic slip to embrace movement and flux. Often, she will warp, mutate and resubmit objects to the kiln, engaging in a process of change and renewal.
Griffiths graduated from MA Sculpture Royal College of Art and has been selected as an AWARD artist for the British Ceramics Biennial in 2023. She was the winner of the Royal Society of Sculptors 2022-2023 Red House Residency supported by Britten Pears Arts.
Recent exhibitions include Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London, 2022; Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show, London, 2022; Drawing Boundaries, Gerald Moore Gallery, London, 2022; ME2U: A Collective Manifesto, Nunnery Gallery, London, 2022
https://www.rebeccagriffiths.co.uk/
Tessa Peters is Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Art at University of Westminster, an Associate Lecturer at CSM, a researcher, writer and independent curator. Her most recent curatorial project was Cultural Icons for the British Ceramics Biennial at the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, and Hove Museum & Art Gallery in 2019-2020. Since 2020 she has facilitated a series of inclusive cross-cultural dialogues, assisting an understanding of issues faced by ceramics practices in different global regions.
Julia Ellen Lancaster is an artist working out of London and Kent, UK. She graduated from MA Environmental Media at the Royal College of Art. She was responsible for setting up one of the first work/live artists residency schemes in London as well as managing two galleries. Following time spent in Tokyo, she exhibited at Youkobo Arts Centre, and was subsequently selected for the Leach 100 Residency, St Ives, UK in 2020 as part of the Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada pottery centenary celebrations. In 2021 she was awarded a further residency with Leach Pottery, being one of the first artists to take up a residency at the historically significant Anchor studio, the original home of the Newlyn Art School.
She currently teaches in a professional ceramics studio on the South East coast, UK, as well as at the Art Academy London. Exhibitions include; Rooted, Poplar Union Arts Centre, London 2023; Humans and the Environment, Cista Arts, 2023, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, m2 Gallery, Peckham 2022; Containers of Meaning, Jupiter Gallery, Newlyn 2022; Resettling, Anchor Studio & Newlyn Art Gallery 2021; Souvenir, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, 2021; The Listening Project, Folkestone Fringe as part of the Folkestone Biennial, 2021; Commissions include the Powell Cotton Museum, Birchington with works also held in private collections internationally.