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Vanity of the Bonfires Romola George Eliot’s ‘Romola,’ set in Florence in the 1490s, but written in England in 1862, presents a society where public discourse, people’s everyday lives – their social lives in particular – and street politics were strikingly similar to our own. The public mood was volatile. The Medicis had been expelled…

2 Plus 2 Equals 5 Exploring Censorship in Art, 19202-20202 2 Plus 2 Equals 5 is the title of an exhibition at Not for Sale Gallery in Hackney Wick. The title is a reference to George Orwell’s use of the concept in 1984. ‘The Party’ adopts it as a fundamental tenet of belief to accustomise…

Vice and Virtue: the artists Vice and Virtue is a mixed media exhibition by six artists who respond in substantially different ways to the rising religiosity of contemporary social justice movements. Much of the work was made specifically for the exhibition which continues until July 26th at Ruup & Form. This posts introduces the artists…

Everygender, the Jugs Everygender’s Vision, (top right) The Avenging Vessel, (bottom left) both jugs 43×32 (incl handle,) x 27 cm Photo: Sylvain Deleu Everygender, comprised of four jugs, tells a pictorial story of my expulsion from Ceramic Art London in 2022 based on the Medieval Morality Play, ‘Everyman.’ Everyman, (1530) ‘Everyman‘ is thought to have…

Wedding Procession, 2011 .Wedding Procession, 2011 82h x 49w cm Private Collection Photo: Sylvain Deleu A Memorable Event Wedding Procession records the Royal Wedding of 2011, the marriage of Prince William to Katherine Middleton, as she was then. It took place in May that year and was memorable for reasons beyond the expected ones. Firstly,…

Continental Brexit, 2018 Continental Brexit, 2018 Private Collection 30h x 27w cm Materials Handbuilt pot, decorated in coloured slips both inside and out. Fired, smashed, and rebuilt with gaps so the internal imagery is visible. Clear glazed, with bright pink aluminium leaf edging the gaps to frame the internal imagery. How it began Every so…

Colour Studies Colour Studies – Part 1 This post is an introduction to the formal concerns of painting with slips on pots. By ‘painting,’ I mean the sort I learnt at art school in the early 1980s which evolved mainly from post Renaissance, Western European art. This starts the discussion of how that is done…

The Garden Vases, 2024 The Garden series, 2024 Will show at Collect24 with Ruup & Form Somerset House, Feb 28/9 pvs, Mar 1-3 public. Tickets via Collect24 Garden series has grown out of my life long love of gardens which I probably got from my mother and grandmother. It is that sense of an ‘in…

Wootton Exhibition Wootton Exhibition #2 I’m having an exhibition in Wootton by Woodstock, the village where I grew up. It is hosted by my sister who now lives there in the same house we lived in as children. The show runs all next week, Sunday 11th-Friday 16th February, by appointment. Contact me if you’d like…

Pimp State, 2021 Introduction Pimp State is both a bowl and poster. It is a dystopian feminist satire on what I imagine the State would look like under the ‘full decrim’ regime. ‘Full Decriminalisation’ refers to a proposed model of legal reform that seeks to decriminalise men who pay for sex along with all third…

Feminist Jugs – Sink the Sex Trade! Feminist Jugs I love this picture of the my two new sgraffito ware jugs, photographed together, leading the fleet. Paired up like this seems to inject energy – they could almost be sailing. I’m particularly delighted with the way the handles look. They’re in the shop now. Go…

Save Our Girls! Save Our Girls! Women’s protest, Tate Modern London  On Friday 27th January, 2024 a group of about 84 women gathered outside Tate Modern, London to protest the mass rapes of women in Israel, by Hamas, on October 7th 2023. The breaking of a pre-existing cease-fire by Hamas to attack Israel that day…

Vice and Virtue Introduction Vice and Virtue is the first exhibition I have curated. I  am grateful to Ruup & Form for hosting and supporting this new departure which runs from June 20th – July 26th, 2024. The six artists I selected have responded to my proposal that contemporary social justice movements are becoming increasingly…

A Nasty Piece of Work We’re Women! 2021 Version 1, 38 diam x 16 high cm The bowl ‘We’re Women,’ featured in this post, is currently showing in ‘Feminist Satire, No Safe Spaces,’ @u_jazdowski Castle, Warsaw, until Oct 1st 2023 An earlier version of this piece, a fired clay ‘sketch,’ (private collection,) will also be on show…

Berthe Morisot Exhibition Berthe Morisot: An Exhibition of her Paintings About the Artist The Dulwich Picture Gallery has staged a small exhibition of Berthe Morisot’s work focused exclusively on her paintings. Morisot came from a well to do family and was properly trained as an artist so she was able to pursue a career to…

Mrs Magnitude’s Emporium Introducing the  Artist, Kay Leseeleur Ara I got back yesterday from two wonderful days in Jersey viewing @kay_leseelleur exhibition at @arthousejersey This is Kay’s first ever solo exhibition – she’s 82 so it’s been a long time coming – and she has not only taken the island by storm, she’s put Jersey…

Feminist Satire, No Safe Spaces – Part 3 Gender – Introduction The featured pot, Cirucs Acts, is one of 23 pots which, along with 2 huge drawings, and 3 videos are on show at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, one of Poland’s most prestigious galleries. This my first ever solo show outside the UK. The…

Feminist Satire, No Safe Spaces – part 2 Introduction The featured pot, Pimp State, is one of 23 pots which, along with 2 huge drawings, and 3 videos are on show at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, one of Poland’s most prestigious galleries. This my first ever solo show outside the UK. The…

Feminist Satire, No Safe Spaces   Opening Night Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, July 7th 2023.  Here are a couple of favourite photos from the opening. It is a huge honour to be showing my pots in such a prestigious museum and in such an art-serious city like Warsaw. I owe thanks to…

No Safe Spaces! Feminist Satire – part 1 Introduction The featured pot, photographed with me, is Postcard from the Caliphate, 2017. It is one of 23 pots and 2 huge drawings that were packed into giant crates and taken to Warsaw, last week. Yesterday they arrived at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Poland’s most…

Find the Witch! About the pot Find the Witch! is based on my many experiences of having pots either removed from exhibition or hidden, and having invitations to speak or perform revoked. This is sometimes referred to as being ‘cancelled.’ It is one of what will be a new series of pots called, ‘The Exploits…

Legal Action – Result! I’m delighted.. I’m delighted with the outcome of my legal action against the Craft Potter’s Association and University of the Arts London. You can read the background to the case here. I’m hugely grateful to Levin’s who represented me and they provide the following statement on my behalf: Statement from Levin’s…

I took part in an ‘art chat’ at Tate Modern on Friday as part of their monthly Tate Lates series. This one was called ‘The L Word’ and the whole evening was a celebration of ‘Queer’ culture – or Lesbian and Gay as I would call it. That would be inaccurate though since, in ‘queer’…

‘Remembering Atefeh,’ 2013, easily my most photographed and probably mostly widely shown pot, has been acquired by the Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. This is biggest collection of art by women in Europe and one of the major collections of feminist art. It was started in the early 1990s and has slowly…

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States, (SCOTUS,) launch the most ferocious attack on women’s reproductive rights in the US for decades. Or that is how it seems anyway. There has been a provisional vote. The overturning of Roe vs Wade, which enshrines in law the rights of women in the US…

Ceramic Art London, (CAL,) 2022, organised by the Craft Potter’s Association, (CPA,) at Central St. Martin’s, (CSM,) is now in full swing – or as full as it can be without me, that is. My dispute with the CPA This is the story so far, along with a short progress report. The CPA banned me…

Fired! From Ceramic Art London, 2022 It all seemed to be going so well. The contract for this year was renewed, my lecture – about my project with women@thewell  – updated, since it was originally planned for CAL 2020, and then came the phone call from the director of the Craft Potters Association, (CPA,) to…

Ceramic Art London – I’ve been disinvited from this event PLEASE SEE LATEST POST Ceramic Art London, (CAL,) April 8th, 9th and 10th, 2022. Central St. Martins, 1 Granary Square, Kings Cross, London, N1C 4AA I will be giving one of the Claytalks lectures on Sunday April 10th, 1-2pm Some of the pots from ‘And the…