Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize Exhibition: 67 York Street, Marylebone

For this year's Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize 2023, we are proud to be presenting to you an outstanding curation of ceramics from a talented and diverse shortlist of Ceramicists. For more information on judging panels, curators, supporters and patrons please visit our website: https://www.young-masters.co.uk/

Anne-Laure Cano

Anne-Laure Cano’s practice is led by material, process and meaning. She explores the properties of clay through a process of breaking and reassembling; twisting, pulling and mixing clays with eclectic components. Her abstract sculptures create intrigue through a combination of familiar details with unexpected elements. A key theme of her recent series ‘Ussade’ is reinvention, adaptation and the relationship between destruction and creation. The lines of stress, cracks and distortion of the pieces are the result of pushing the material to its limits, as well as the unanticipated results from firings. These stresses and fractures illustrate the duality between fragility and resilience.

Recent Exhibitions include; Collect Art Fair, London (2023), Solo show at CERCO - International Contemporary Ceramics Festival, Zaragoza, Spain (2022), Post Creaciones - Associació Ceramistes de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain (2022), International Ceramic Triennial Art Andenne, Belgium (2022), Teruel Museum, Spain (2022), International Ceramics Biennial of Esplugues, Barcelona, Spain (2021), Bath Society of Artists Annual Open Exhibition (2020), and Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Prize Exhibition (2020). Prizes and awards include: Brookfield Properties Craft Award, shortlist (2023), Wells Art Contemporary Awards shortlist (2019), and a Crafts Design Award nomination (2017). Residencies include Artist in Residence at La Rajoleta Ceramic Museums, Barcelona (2024), and Bernard Leach Residency, St Ives, Cornwall (2020).

Anne-Laure Cano was the winner of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize 2023

Isis Dove Edwin

Isis Dove-Edwin’s work is themed on the ethnographic object as a subject of decolonial making. The work explores the diaspora of objects. Her starting point is the ‘traditional’ domestic coiled terracotta pot, burnished, low fired and communally made by women in West Africa. Such pots travelled to colonial museums where they were decontextualised and classified as ethnographic objects to highlight otherness and remaining in these settings suggest a fixed tradition and creative stasis. Isis works expressively and gesturally, using the ceramic language of materiality, process, and form to create objects that evoke labour, landscapes, and the body. Colours insinuate fire, sun, vegetation, night, tropicality, joy, humour and pain. Always with the blue of the ocean, so fundamental to diasporic histories.

Dove-Edwin lives in London where she worked as a doctor for many years. After taking a break to look after her children, she decided to pursue her passion for clay, and in 2021 gained a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Ceramic Design at Central St Martins, before studying at the Royal College of Art. She is a member of the Pollen Collective of artists. Exhibitions include ‘Now,Now’, Tafeta Gallery, London (2023), ‘Preface’, Pumphouse Gallery, London (2022), ‘Unmute’, Bargehouse, London (2021).

Isis Dove Edwin was the winner of the Young Masters Cockpit Prize in 2023

Alisha Gent

Alisha Gent’s work accumulates references from art history and ceramic traditions, teasing influences from Renaissance iconography and composition. Her influences are far ranging; from Fra Angelico’s ‘The Annunciation’ and Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’, to Abstract Expressionist mark making, Rococo architectural relief and Modernist sculpture. These inspirations are brought to life through traditional pottery techniques of throwing, and hand-building methods of coils and slabs, embodying a postmodernist mindset of collaging these different aspects whilst embracing contemporary aesthetics and technology. Thrown clay is stretched and torn, then stacked and collated in a curious, playful way. Expressive, vibrant, painterly glazes layered and splashed to enhance these experimental forms.

Alisha is a recent graduate, recently receiving a BA (Hons) Ceramics, Cardiff Metropolitan University. Group exhibitions include ‘Transition 573’, Llantarnum Grange, Cardiff (2023), ‘With Oil and Water’, Reddoor Rye (2019) and The Ashdown Gallery, Forest Row (2017). Awards include Female sculpture, 3rd in ceramics, Young Craftsman of the Year (2019), Hares, 1st in Ceramics, overall silver, Young Craftsman of the Year (2018), Young Arts Golden Jubilee Award, The Arts Society Sussex (2018).

Alisha Gent was a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2023

Jemma Gowland

Jemma Gowland’s work explores the way that girls are constrained from birth to conform to an appearance and code of behaviour, to present a perfect face, and maintain the expectations of others. The use of porcelain, or of stoneware with layered disrupted surfaces, denote value yet describe the vulnerability beneath. Her most recent work draws on the traditional history of the figurine, from Meissen to the present; echoing the white unglazed finish with gold lustre. Current themes build on this tradition, with it’s symbolism of the female figure as ornament and object, to highlight issues of growing up female in the modern world.

Jemma Gowland trained for a BSc in Engineering Product Design, working in industrial design and architectural model making before becoming a teacher of Design and Technology, a career she followed for many years. Ceramics became first a hobby, and then a full-time occupation after leaving teaching in 2014. Her deepening interest in the immense possibilities of ceramics as a material led to further study, culminating in the City Lit Ceramics Diploma, London, graduating in 2019. Awards and exhibitions include: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2023), Royal Cambrian Academy of Art Open Exhibition (2023), Collect Open (2022), Bevere Graduate Award (2019-20), and Potclays student award, Art in Clay (2019).

Camilla Hanney

Working through ceramics, sculpture and installation Camilla’s practice explores themes of time, sexuality, cultural identity and the corporeal, often referencing the body in both humorous and challenging ways. By subverting traditional, genteel crafts she attempts to transgress and contemplate conventional modes of femininity, deconstructing archaic identities and rebuilding new figures from detritus of the past. By materialising the familiar in an unfamiliar context her work stimulates our ability to rethink our relationship towards objects, threatening the natural order and toying with the tensions that lie between beauty and repulsion, curiosity and discomfort, desire and disgust.

Camilla Hanney is a Graduate of Goldsmiths University Masters of Fine Art programme (2017-2019) and also Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (Visual Arts Practice 2010-2015). Since moving to London, her work has been exhibited by a diverse range of galleries including the South London Gallery in conjunction with Bloomberg New Contemporaries, No. 20 Arts, Muse Gallery, Dora House, Messums, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, The Rosenfeld Gallery and Cromwell Place Gallery. Hanney was the 2019/20 recipient of the Sarabande foundation studio bursary. Awards include: UK Young Artist of the Year (runner up award), ‘Committee’s Choice’ prize at ‘Exceptional’, Collyer Bristow Gallery, Zealous: Sculpture Stories Prize, Gilbert Bayes Sculpture Award winner (2020), Irish Visual Arts Bursary Award (2020), Glass Lab Award (2021), Newbury Trust Craft Excellence Award in conjunction with Cockpit Arts (2022). She was selected for the 2022 Artist initiated projects in conjunction with the Irish arts council, granting her a funded solo show at Pallas Project Gallery, Dublin. Her most recent exhibition ‘A Common Thread’ was held in Linenhall Arts Centre, Ireland.

Camilla Hanney was a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2023

Eveline Kieskamp

Eveline Kieskamp’s inspiration comes from various sources such as art history, literature and the Bible, and themes such as impermanence, vulnerability versus strength recur in her work. Her sculptures have a morbid sense of beauty, recontextualising historic images for the present by employing alienation and a restrained form of excess.This creates an idyllic surrealism that is both seductive and inaccessible. The sculptures in the series “Frozen Queen,” and “Todo Sólo” are inspired by historical Queens from the 16th century, in which women were living in lavish costumes with suffocating lace collars. Using this theme in her sculptures, Eveline explores what it would be like to be trapped as a woman in a straitjacket of excess such as we often encounter in our Western world. The emphasis on appearance and exterior, for example in social media, gives her that sense of oppression.

Eveline Kieskamp is a recent graduate of the International Ceramic Center, Skaelskør, Denmark. Exhibitions include: Exhibition Maison Gramont, Fanjeaux, France (2023), Exhibition Vestingval, Elburg, (2023), PEK Ede, ‘Back to the future’, Galerie Cultura, Ede (2022) and ‘Ode to Nature’ in the Von Gimborn Arboretum, Doorn (2020). She was nominated for the Dutch Ceramics Award (2022), and was Artistin- Residence at Guldagergaard International ceramic center, Denmark (2022).

Eveline Kieskamp was a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2023

Ebony Russell

Ebony Russell is an Australian ceramic artist who uses an unorthodox approach to construct ceramic sculptures. Her unique technique was developed out of an interest in gendered aesthetics, labour and traditional craft practices where Russell methodically pipes porcelain in series of intricate layers to build gravity- defying forms. Challenging the traditional making processes of decorative vessels; in her works the decoration becomes the structure, and the boundaries between the two are erased. Exploring established perceptions of cultural and artistic practices that were once exclusively coded as feminine and thus insignificant, Russell’s work celebrates the decorative, promiscuous aesthetics and politics of purity; the superficial, excess and delight – with pleasure.

Russell completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Honours) at Monash University in 2003 and in 2019 graduated from The National Art School Sydney with a Masters of Fine Art. Russell has won many awards including the Franz International Rising Star Award in 2018 and the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize in 2023. Major exhibitions include ‘Think Pinker’, Gavlak Gallery Los Angeles (2023), ‘SABOTAJE ESTEìTICO’, Yusto Giner Gallery, Spain (2022), ‘Halcyon Days’, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco (2022), ‘Clay Dynasty’, The Powerhouse Museum (2022), ‘Interconnected’, NERAM (2022).

Ebony Russell was awarded Highly Commended for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize 2023

SaeRi Seo

The ‘Moon Jar’ is a representative Korean traditional pottery of the Joseon Dynasty that has contributed the elevated reputation of Korean ceramics worldwide. Historically, the moon jar was associated only with male roles, as women were not allowed to produce or access the studio due to the belief that they brought bad luck. To overcome a childhood and adolescence coloured by this belief (and accompanying abuse), SaeRi began destroying her works to reveal her trauma, incorporating shapes from Korean representative ceramics as her cultural background influenced her mental struggles. By detonating the beautiful pottery, she stepped forward and started communicating with the world.

SaeRi Seo studied ceramics for her BA at Seoul Women’s University, and lwent on to complete a Masters in Ceramics and Makers at Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2022. Recent exhibitions and awards include: NAE Open 2023, New Art Exchange (2023), RBA Rising Stars Exhibition, The Royal Over-Seas League (2023), and nominated as a finalist for the BADA Art Award (2022).

SaeRi Seo was the winner of the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award in 2023.

Oriel Zinaburg

Oriel is inspired by nature, art history and the materiality of clay. The challengingcharacteristics of clay, as well as the processes of glazing and firing are inspirational, leading Oriel to constantly experiment and search for new forms.

After completing military service, Oriel studied fine art at the Bezalel Academy for Art & Design in Jerusalem for two years. In 1997 he moved to London to study architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He has since worked in London as an architect for 15 years (AA Dip RIBA Part 3 in 2012).

In 2018 he joined the Turning Earth Ceramic Studio, where he has worked with clay during his spare time. In 2020, due to the Covid pandemic, Oriel joined the Turning Earth ‘In Production’ program, which enabled him to work full time as a ceramicist in a studio in Leytonstone.

Recent exhibtions include: ‘When Feeling Out of Sight’, Candida Stevens Gallery, UK (2023), Collect, London (2023), LOT Exhibition, Cromwell Place (2022), The Eye of the Collector (2022), and Ceramic British Biennial, Fresh, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, (2021).

Oriel Zinaburg was a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2023.

Sara Dodd

Sara Dodd paints intuitively with porcelain clay in its liquid form, slip, reimagining this traditional material into wafer-thin strata of beauty, delicacy and strength. Working intuitively and meditatively, these strata are layered to create a canvas of pattern, contrast and harmony. Pigments are added by hand to liquid clay, experimenting methodically to create the fluid palette of indistinguishable colour gradients that often feature in the work. Firing the clay itself is important tool - the extreme temperatures inside the kiln creates unpredictable moves and shifts. Embracing this dynamism, Sara’s pieces capture a moment in time from the firing. Each outcome is a balance of design and chance, capturing freedom and individuality. Torn, uneven edges of porcelain catch the light, while simultaneously casting shadow to the layer behind. Through the use of layering paints these same themes of light and darkness have been explored extensively since the 17th century. Here, they are used to create intimacy, the play of light drawing the eye, directing it from one layer to the next

Sara Dodd is an award-winning ceramic artist living and working in London. She is a graduate of Cardiff Metropolitan University (2013) after which she held an assistant position with Katharine Morling. Her work ‘Swell’ was exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition (2017) where it enjoyed a highly successful run and went on to be featured in Elle Decoration (2019). She received an honourable mention at the International KOGEI Crafts Awards, Japan (2021), and her ‘Monochrome Maquette’ was awarded with a 3D Art Prize at the Wales Contemporary Open (2022). In 2021 Dodd joined the Craft Potters Association (CPA) and Contemporary Applied Arts (CAA), in recognition of the high quality of her craftsmanship. In 2022 she received the Rosalind Stracey Ceramics Award from Cockpit Arts and moved her studio to Deptford, South East London. Her work is exhibited regularly across the UK as well as internationally in Europe, USA and the Middle East.

Sara Dodd was Highly Commended for the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award in 2023.

Jess Riva Cooper

b. 1981, Toronto, Canada

Jess Riva Cooper is a Toronto-based artist and educator, integrating colour, drawing, clay and numerous other materials to create sculptures and installation-based artworks. Her pieces often explore themes of mythology, nature, and transformation, blending human and botanical imagery in ways that evoke vulnerability and resilience. Working in an invasive, parasitic way, Riva Cooper uses scavenged and broken remnants of her older sculptures to create a finished result that captures a static moment of tension, struggle, and the reclamation process that often intersects nature, objects, and human. Nature overgrows her ceramic busts, subverting order, inviting chaos and becoming a parable for a transient alternative state instead of a representation of life.

Cooper holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Her artistic practice is shaped by residencies at Medalta, The Archie Bray Foundation, and the Kohler Arts/Industry Program, among others. Her work has been exhibited widely across North America and internationally, including at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto and the Cynthia Corbett Gallery in London. Through her sculptures, Cooper addresses ecological concerns and cultural storytelling, encouraging reflection on the interconnectedness of life, decay, and renewal. Without intervention, nature takes over and breathes new life into objects and sculptures. As humans pressure the planet, what happens when the environment pushes back? When decay precipitates regrowth in new and unexpected spaces? Will we, responsible for the climate crisis, unintentionally create a hybridization of flora and fauna as imagined in my sculptures?

Notable recent exhibitions and awards include:

Pullulate: Solo Exhibition, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON - 2024

Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramic Prize, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, UK – 2023

Kristen Stain

Kristen Stain makes work that focuses on exploring the concept of “both/and”: this inquiry looks to provide equal parts of exploration through both their cultural roots [West Africa, Caribbean] and personal experience [Black American, formally taught illustrator].

Kristen was born in Pittsburgh, PA and grew up in Fresno, California. They started their undergrad work as a political science major and walk-on athlete at the University of Pittsburgh, and later graduated from the Art Center College of Design (BFA Illustration) with a strong interest in product design. Kristen worked in sportswear for three and a half years, which took them to Portland, Oregon, NYC, and Boston, MA. Early during this time on the east coast, Kristen began exploring ceramics as a tool for personal creativity and enjoyment. It quickly evolved into their primary medium while the lockdown gave an unprecedented opportunity to think.

Stain’s work is not only informed from a practice of ancestral traditions, which center values like pleasure, community, and a reverence for the earth, but also a technical, research-based approach informed by prior industry experience as a colour-concept-material-finish designer. The combination of these perspectives allows for my objectives to intuitively bridge past and future. Coil building is the primary technique used to channel ancestral knowing and collective memories while making. Stain is building a relationship with a black clay body, thinking about topics such as beauty and adornment, identity and signifiers, as well as history. The clay body has asked them to take time to learn its nature; it has an ilmenite grog and absorbs many glaze materials, maintaining its dark color or not showing the glaze material at all.

Kristen Stain was a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2023.