Annie Turner

Annie Turner is a British ceramic artist from Suffolk, whose art is very closely linked with the river Deben and its surrounding environment where she grew up. Annie’s sculpture is imprinted with the river Deben’s past and present, the cycles of nature and the interaction of man. These are, as she puts it ‘objects that trigger the memory’, as much collective memory as personal recollection. These encrusted forms – families of Ladders, Sinkers, Drifters, Sluices and so on – reveal the particular texture and weather of this water land the character of its beds and inlets, the colour of its reflected sky. The richly layered Mussel bowls, impressed with the fragments and detritus Annie has found on innumerable walks, are small in scale but encapsulate so much about the broader landscape – a tidal geography concentrated and made intimate.

Annie trained at Bristol Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. In 1984 she set up her first studio in London. She has exhibited widely and teaches at The City Lit. Annie’s work is much sought after and collected worldwide.  It can be seen in permanent museum collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the artist was shortlisted for the Loewe Craft Prize 2019.

Visit Annie Turner's studio

Our Interview with Annie Turner

See Annie Turner in Our Collecting Craft Feature