Contemporary Ceramics

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Contemporary Ceramics is the leading gallery for British studio ceramics.
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Contemporary Ceramics Centre is a retail gallery showcasing the best of British studio ceramics. Situated opposite the British Museum, the gallery has an annual exhibition program featuring national and international artists. With a regularly changing display, it is always possible to see and buy a wide range of work from functional tableware to individual collector's pieces.

03/09/2026

We're delighted to be part of this one. Contemporary Ceramics and the Craft Potters Association are joining forces with for a special selling exhibition.

Eight makers. Two weeks of contemporary ceramics at Ligne Roset Westend.

From 10–23 September, Ligne Roset Westend in Fitzrovia hosts work by eight CPA Selected Members and Ceramic Art London exhibitors — including several familiar faces from our own gallery:

Tanya Gomez Tanya Gomez
Sharon Griffin Sharon Griffin MRSS
Ruth King Ruth King
Sue Mundy Sue Mundy
Barry Stedman
Emily Stubbs Emily Stubbs
Deiniol Williams Deiniol Williams Ceramics
Ella Porter Ella Porter

Ligne Roset Westend, 23–25 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JE
10–23 September

Join us to discover eight distinctive approaches to contemporary ceramics.

02/09/2026

There is something quietly compelling about the way Sophie MacCarthy works - building surface after surface, layer by layer, entirely by instinct.

"All these specific elements of decoration are applied entirely instinctively. As I feel it."

Our 'In Conversation' with Sophie is now live on the website. She talks about her studio at the Chocolate Factory in Stoke Newington, the sources of inspiration she finds on the ground around her, and the process behind the slip-painted surfaces of Accidental Compositions - a practice developed over nearly 35 years and still finding new directions.

Well worth a read. Follow the link to read the full conversation and view work from the exhibition online https://buff.ly/mAPVXYB

Accidental Compositions runs at Contemporary Ceramics until Saturday 12th September 2026.

63 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BF

31/08/2026

"People have told me that my pots are joyful and I'm glad of that."

Our 'In Conversation' with Sophie MacCarthy is now live on the website. Sophie talks about her studio at the Chocolate Factory in Stoke Newington, a space she has shared with fellow artists for nearly 30 years, and reflects on the moment colour became an expressive language for her work. She also discusses the instinctive process behind her slip-painted surfaces, and what it meant to see Accidental Compositions installed in the gallery for the first time.

It is a warm and generous conversation and well worth a read over the bank holiday weekend.

Follow the link to read the full 'In Conversation' and view work from the exhibition online https://buff.ly/mAPVXYB

Accidental Compositions runs at Contemporary Ceramics until Saturday 12th September 2026.

63 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BF

29/08/2026

Saturday Spotlight | Jonathan Chiswell-Jones

In 1999, Jonathan moved to East Sussex where he built a smaller kiln in a more spacious workshop. He began to experiment seriously with reduction fired lustre which had fascinated him ever since he attended a course given by the late Marjorie Clinton two years previously.

This now absorbs most of his attention. It provides challenges at every stage of the process. The last firing during which nano particles of silver and of copper are deposited in the glaze and reflect light, can provide joy and frustration in equal measure. Aside from the magic of lustre firings, there is the wonder of endless possibilities to be discovered down a path which might seem to the outsider both narrow and constrained.

He loves working in a thousand year old tradition which has roots in the Middle East, flowered in Moorish Spain and 19th century Europe, was revived in this country by Alan Caiger-Smith, and today provides a glittering thread to those determined enough to pick it up and carry it, as the spirit takes them, into the future.

Shop the collection here https://buff.ly/dZ1sVMV

27/08/2026

New work from Ania Perkowska has just arrived at the gallery.

Ania grew up in communist Poland, surrounded by stark grey concrete — brutal, imposing, unavoidable. It's that world that underpins everything she makes. Her brown stripy bowls draw from the same rawness, finding beauty in restriction and simplicity of form. Dark meets light, rough meets smooth, drabness conceals drama.

From a distance the work appears quiet. It's only when you get closer, when you pick a piece up and hold it, that the detail reveals itself. The texture. The surface. The weight of it in your hand.

Available now in a range of sizes from £75. Shop via the link below.
https://buff.ly/2d9OsBF

24/08/2026

Just arrived!
New work from Jennifer Hall and Jill Fanshawe Kato.

Jennifer Hall works from her studio on the north coast of Pembrokeshire, throwing domestic ware in small batches on a geared kick wheel. Each piece is decorated with slips and oxides using slip trailing, brushwork and sgraffito: fish, circles, stripes... in the warm, earthy tones that earthenware does best. Her aim is simple and quietly ambitious: pots that enrich the daily rituals surrounding food and drink.

Jill Fanshawe Kato has established a studio in Devon, with forests and wilderness on her doorstep. She trained in Japan in the 1970s, studying Karatsu pottery in Tokyo and working with renowned potter Ryoji Koie in Gifu Prefecture - and that deep connection to the animistic world of fire and clay runs through everything she makes. Her new work is alive with the natural world: hares, avocets, peacocks, swallows, grasshoppers, guinea fowl. Hand-built, coil and slab, imagery in coloured slips, fired to 1270°c.

Two makers, two landscapes, both making work that belongs on your table.

Shop both collections at the link below.
https://buff.ly/51MDUkw

22/08/2026

Saturday Spotlight: Hannah McAndrew

"Britain boasts a particularly fine tradition of slipware pottery. I draw on this rich heritage and use it as the basis for my own work, where I attempt to capture the essence of these historical pieces, reinterpreted in a contemporary style." Hannah McAndrew

Hannah McAndrew enjoys the challenge of creating a piece that will not simply perform its task well but will be attractive to the eye and instil a sense of comfort and warmth to its surroundings. Her pots are thrown in red earthenware clay and decorated using coloured slips. The decoration is applied to the surface of the pot by use of a slip trailer, while the surface is still glistening wet. Sometimes she allows the slipped surface to dry a little, so that she can inscribe motifs with sgraffito lines. These slips are subsequently enhanced by the addition of a layer of rich honey glaze.

Follow the link to discover more https://buff.ly/o0h49IY

21/08/2026

What a wonderful preview evening. Accidental Compositions opened on Wednesday to a busy and lively gallery! Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate Sophie MacCarthy's new exhibition.

It was lovely to see colleagues from her studio there to support Sophie. Conversations were flowing, and the work was finding new homes.

If you weren't able to make the preview, the exhibition runs until Saturday 12th September at Contemporary Ceramics. We warmly invite you to come and see the work in person.

Exhibition pieces are also available to view and purchase online now https://buff.ly/ow8HpL9

Contemporary Ceramics
63 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BF

19/08/2026

Tonight, Accidental Compositions opens at Contemporary Ceramics.

In a career spanning nearly 50 years, ceramicist Sophie MacCarthy has developed a unique and distinctive personal style. Through her sometimes subtle and other times bold use of coloured slips, painterly brushwork, stencils and wax-resist, she evokes the colours, forms and movements of the passing seasons.

Often focusing on the ground, she finds beauty in the accidental compositions created by wind-blown leaves, stalks and detritus sometimes gathered around a storm drain or scattered over concrete and tarmac, juxtaposing the vibrant colours of the natural world with the gritty textures of the urban environment.

“She has a poetic insight into the natural world” David Whiting

Preview: 6-8pm this evening
63 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BF

We hope to see you there.
Follow the link for more details https://buff.ly/ow8HpL9

18/08/2026

We are delighted to invite you to the preview of Accidental Compositions, a new solo exhibition of slip-painted earthenware ceramics by Sophie MacCarthy.

Wednesday 19th August, 6–8pm
Contemporary Ceramics, 63 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BF

In a career spanning nearly 50 years, ceramicist Sophie MacCarthy has developed a unique and distinctive personal style. Through her sometimes subtle and other times bold use of coloured slips, painterly brushwork, stencils and wax-resist, she evokes the colours, forms and movements of the passing seasons.

Often focusing on the ground, she finds beauty in the accidental compositions created by wind-blown leaves, stalks and detritus sometimes gathered around a storm drain or scattered over concrete and tarmac, juxtaposing the vibrant colours of the natural world with the gritty textures of the urban environment.

"She has a poetic insight into the natural world." - David Whiting

The exhibition opens in gallery and online from Thursday 20th August and runs until Saturday 12th September 2026.

We hope to see you at the preview.

Discover more here https://buff.ly/wLZPsaK

Address

63 Great Russell Street
London
WC1B3BF

Telephone

+442072429644

Website

https://www.contemporaryceramics.uk/

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