Collecting Craft: To Have and To Hold

Talking about Matthew Chamber’s ceramic sculptures in FT How to Spend It, actor James Nesbitt, said:

“I look at this piece with real wonder and hope. There is an endless, integral beauty to it that I find very moving. It’s extraordinary. Almost wondrous.”

James Nesbitt, actor FT How to Spend it May 29th, 2020

This is a typical response from clients who, like James, have bought Matthew Chamber’s sculptures from Cavaliero Finn over the years. We love to see the reaction of people seeing Matthew’s work for the first time. You can physically see their mouths drop, while they wrack their brains, trying to work out how on earth his circular sculptures are made. Aside from their undeniable beauty, they are technically astounding and totally unique, which is why we have worked with Matthew for over 15 years.

In his recent talk – Collect Selects Ceramics and Glass for the VIP programme of art fair Collect 2021, Sotheby’s Director, Robin Cawdron Stewart talked about his love for Matthew Chamber’s work:

“His pieces are magnificent….Matthew’s work is unique in the context of British ceramicists at the moment.  He treads such a fine line between ceramics and sculpture… his work is so accessible.  He’s a good name to watch.”

Matthew’s work can be found in public collections in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and National Museum, Scotland,  Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres in Paris, and the Musee Ariana in Geneva.  In 2019 the Victoria and Albert Museum purchased one of Matthew’s sculptures for their permanent collection from Cavaliero Finn’s showcase at Collect.

Find out more about Matthew’s work in our recent interview with the artist here.

At the end of 2019, Nicholas Lees exhibited three of his cobalt blue floating bowls with us at Alter at Fitzrovia Chapel. The rather exceptional trio was acquired for the permanent collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge at the show, courtesy of Nicholas and Judith Goodison.

In addition to this, Nicholas’ work has been exhibited widely in the UK and overseas and is held in private and public collections including York City Art Gallery, York, Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy, and the Auckland Museum, Auckland, New Zealand.

Like many of our artists, Nicholas’s approach to his craft continues to be an investigative journey.
This in itself makes his work attractive to collectors as he pushes the possibilities of the materials he works with to create new and innovative bodies of work.

Talking about his coloured Floating Bowl series Nicholas recently said:

“The introduction of colour to my sculptures was inspired by my works on paper with ink. I started experimenting with soluble metal salts to colour the ceramic as opposed to working with glazes and oxides, for example.  This is an unusual technique, and I was trying to mimic the way that ink soaks into the paper. I found that if I worked with a solution of Cobalt Sulphate applied to the interior of the biscuit fired sculpture and then saturated it with water, as the sculpture dried the colour moved through the sculpture and concentrated onto the edges of the ‘fins’ I’d created using the lathe. The Cobalt moved to the edges of the sculpture because there was a suction caused by faster evaporation from those edges. It was really quite beautiful and everything I was trying to achieve."

“Recently I’ve added soluble gold, copper, and iron to my investigations, which has been another exciting development for me. The colour is all dependent on the chemical interaction between the metal and the porcelain clay. I hope to move on to new metals as well as exploring the possibilities of combining the metals and using them with different clay bodies to achieve different colour results.  The process is slow as tests have to be done on finished works which, in themselves take time to make as you can see in the video, but it is a necessary part of the making in order to understand how the effects work.”

Watch Nicholas making one of his floating bowl series here.

Another artist who uses metals in her clay, like Nicholas Lees, and who works with the temperature of the kiln to encourage further changes to her work whilst firing, like Annie Turner, is Akiko Hirai, and she does this to perfection.  Akiko was also a Loewe Craft Prize finalist in 2019 and her work has a worldwide following.  Her work has been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the Keramikmuseum Westerwald (Westerwald Ceramic Museum), Germany.

Talking about the making of her moon jars which we featured during Crafting a Difference (now all sold) she explained a little of her process.

“Using stoneware, I make the bottom half of the moon jar by throwing a pot on the wheel, I then make the top part by coiling. The original moon jar was made with two large thrown pots joined together but I like the feeling of growing the top part so I prefer not to join an upside-down pot as the upper part. The base of the moon jar is substantial, to withstand the weight of the top of the form and the layers of texture I add later. When the rim of the moon jar is complete and the complete shape is made, I distress the rim. I do this in the same way as when something is broken, people tend to complete it in their imagination, so it is important that the form is initially made perfect."

“The surface of the moon jar is made by applying a layer of dark slip and 3 different types of white slips and lastly fine bits of porcelain are applied on top. I then bisque fire the moon jar.“My glaze is basic white/blue. Finally, I apply wood ash partly on the glazed surface. I only use one type of glaze but due to the chemical reactions in the reduction firing process which reduces the amount of oxygen in the kiln, it creates specific colors and textures to the pot. Some of the added materials are organic substances that burn away after the firing, some are metals and minerals that change their properties and react in the high heat and reduction process."

“During the glaze firing, I start the reduction around 1742°F (950°C). I operate the burner somewhat unevenly so that part of the kiln gets slightly cooler to make a diverse surface. Sometimes I heavily reduce the kiln to the end of the firing, and sometimes I lightly oxidize the kiln atmosphere at the end, depending on my desired outcome.”

Find out more about Akiko’s work by reading our interview with the artist here.

Balancing Act I – Copper, brass, bronze,”nickel silver”
Techniques: raised, soldered, constructed, etched, engraved, patinated.
Components: copper bowl, 7 top pieces, 7 pins, comes with a mahogany stand to store the pieces. Dimensions: diam 26cm x h.11cm + top pieces h.5 -14cm, Wooden stand: 30 x 9 x 9cm

You may have read last week’s post featuring our interview with Cecilia Moore, suffice to say Cecilia’s exploration of ancient metalworking techniques such as raising and her incredible understanding of the chemical reactions of the metals she works with means that she is able to bring to life her joyful and distinctive sculptures. 

Her latest work, Balancing Act I and II, featured in Crafting a Difference at SoShiro is inspired by Morandi’s still life paintings.  Cecilia creates a mottled and lined finish to the surface of each handcrafted element of the sculpture through patination to replicate the painterly feel of Morandi’s work.

Cecilia’s work has been selected for numerous national and international exhibitions, and is in public and private collections, including the National Museum of Ireland, the State Collection of Ireland, and the National Irish Visual Arts Library. She has completed several public art commissions and been selected for Design and Crafts Council of Ireland’s “Critical Selection” from 2017-2020.  In 2018 she won the Golden Fleece Award a major national prize for visual artists in Ireland; in 2016 she won the Royal Dublin Society Award for Silversmithing and Metalwork; and a Thomas Dammann Jnr. Memorial Trust Award for travel and research.

From April 12th – April 30th our collaborative exhibition Crafting a Difference at SoShiro will finally be open to the public.  The exhibition, curated by Brian Kennedy features over 200 hand-crafted objects by more than 70 internationally acclaimed artists from Cavaliero Finn, jaggedart, Ting-Ying, MADEINBRITALY, and Vessel galleries.  The exhibition, supported by both the Michelangelo Foundation and the Loewe Foundation, has already attracted a huge amount of interest in its virtual state.  If you are interested in physically visiting the exhibition which is housed over four floors of the beautiful Georgian Townhouse that is home to SoShiro, you can now book a viewing slot via Eventbrite using the link above. SoShiro is situated at 23 Welbeck Street London W1G 8DZ

While we will do our best to be present during your visit, please bear in mind that to keep visitors and gallerists safe during the exhibition, there will be strict control of the numbers of people in the building at any one time. If you would like to arrange a tour with either Juliana or Debra please just drop us a line after booking your slot and we will endeavour to be present during your visit.