Alison Rees Ceramics

Well, that was exciting! A brief glimpse of my work on the TV this morning. @cew_wood and @_joannemills were interviewed about all the amazing things taking place in Stoke as part of the @british_ceramics_biennial which opens to the public this Saturday, 6th September. Highlights include work by Johnny Vegas and a playground created from spoil. For the Award part of the Biennial, I have created an installation of nearly 300 porcelain postcards which reflect my experience of walking through Britains’s largest greenbelt. The individual porcelain postcards will be available for sale (£175) when the Biennial opens. This project has been a significant undertaking so it’s really exciting to see it installed in Stoke. #britishceramicsbiennial #britishceramicsbiennial2025 #bcb2025 #porcelain #walking #londonloop #porcelainpostcard #slippainting #ceramicart #ceramicartist#

🌟 Award Films 2025 - Alison Rees 🌟 Next up is @alisonlrees in our series of short films to introduce our Award 2025 artists and share how, where and why they make their work. With a background in archaeology and a PhD in ceramics, Dr Alison Rees tells abstract stories of person and place. She combines the materiality of clay with the language of the paper page. Alison is part of the Award exhibition at Spode Works, open daily 10am-4pm from 6 September – 19 October 2025. See the full-length film on the BCB Player, linked in our bio. #BCB2025 #BCBAward 🎥 Thank you to Lucy and Cameron of @elasticpiefilms for these brilliant, heartfelt films.

Huge news! I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected as one of the ten artists to exhibit new work for Award, a headline exhibition for the 2025 @british_ceramics_biennial . The UK’s largest contemporary ceramics event returns to Stoke-on-Trent from 6 September to 19 October 2025 on the historic Spode Works site. There will be six weeks of free exhibitions, screenings, talks and events, so make sure to mark your calendars. Congratulations to the other Award artists: @kyra.cane @fernandocasasempere @nooralichagani & @cliolloydjacob @susanhallsceramicsuk @leah.jensen @charlotte.l.moore @jlperryman47 @daniel_silver__ @jotaylorceramics

My work in porcelain is relatively thin, but it is rarely ever flat. These images, lit from the side, capture the undulations that result from the tensions that exist within the making and firing process. The effect can be similar to paper or even fabric. Each piece is rolled and cut by hand; each piece is unique and unrepeatable. #collectingceramics #ceramicart #collectingcraft #porcelain

The @affordableartfairuk private view was a blast! I had some lovely conversations and ‘Organs of Power’ (2026) is now sold. Thanks again to @carolinejackmanartist for selecting me and for curating for the Affordable Art Fair’s, inaugural Hampstead Ceramics Pavilion ‘Ceramics Unbound: Breaking tradition, embracing originality’. The AAF Hampstead is open: Thursday 7 May: 11am – 9pm Friday 8 May: 11am – 9pm Saturday 9 May: 10am – 6pm Sunday 10 May: 10am – 6pm There is a link to more information in my bio. #collectingceramics #ceramicart #collectingcraft #ceramicexhibition #porcelain

These porcelain postcards, initially made for the @british_ceramics_biennial , will be part of my solo exhibition at Lion House Gallery, Twickenham. Apologies but Instagram is posting the images darker than the originals! All work will be for sale. Distance and Proximity: Pages of Porcelain Private view: 15 May 6-8pm Open weekends: 16/17; 23/24 and 30/31 May, 11 - 5pm Artist Sunday Salon / Q&A: 24 May 11 - 12 noon, (booking essential, please use the link in my bio) Open other times by appointment Lion House Gallery @artathome 13 Sion Road Twickenham TW1 3DR #collectingceramics #ceramicart #collectingcraft #ceramicexhibition #porcelain

Distance and Proximity: Pages of Porcelain The title for my solo show is taken from Thomas A Clark’s book, Distance and Proximity. Chapter One is called, ‘In Praise of Walking’ where Clark writes:   ‘Walking is the human way of getting about’   ‘Always, everywhere, people have walked, veining the earth with paths, visible and invisible, symmetrical and meandering’   ‘What I take with me, what I leave behind, are of less importance than what I discover along the way’ This solo show explores ideas of walking and landscape through distance and proximity.  The show contains work made a few years ago, post-PhD, as well work made more proximately There are compositions which have accreted and accumulated over time and there are works which explore landscapes observed from a distance as well as those experienced close at hand. The show will include compositions exhibited at both the @british_ceramics_biennial and @collectartfair . Distance and Proximity: Pages of Porcelain Private view — 15 May Artist Sunday Salon / Q&A — 24 May, 11 - 12 noon, (booking essential, please use the link in my bio) Open weekends : 16/17; 23/24 and 30/31 May, 11 - 5 pm Open other times by appointment Lion House Gallery @newartathome 13 Sion Road Twickenham TW1 3DR With all thanks to Kath Wood for her generosity.

Sea walls and harbour structures at Narin, Scotland. GLORIOUS. I’m usually walking urban spaces, or perhaps the greenbelt adjoining city conurbations. So a complete change of scenery and visual information for me. Changeable weather and light, and the sounds and smells of the sea, all created a sensory landscape. I grew up by the sea and everything today held a strange sensory memory. The visual weight of the harbour walls was striking and not dissimilar to encountering a building. #nairn #landscaperesearch

Buildings, details and atmospheres. Lille.

Mapping the City (2024) Every walk that I take generates new data; more information is added to my library. Walking is mapping with the feet, visual and experiential. This work draws on my library of images of grilles, the ironwork through which water flows to leave the street, and air travels to ventilate the lives of indoor workers. This is the starting point, but with each iteration, the work becomes more abstract. Are we looking at the visual language of grilles or are we looking at the footprint of buildings? Are we looking at the small scale, or the large scale? Mapping the City is a compression of information experienced whilst walking city streets over time. This work has been selected for the Affordable Art Fair’s, inaugural Hampstead Ceramics Pavilion ‘Ceramics Unbound: Breaking tradition, embracing originality’ curated by Caroline Jackman. @affordableartfairuk @carolinejackmanartist The AAF Hampstead will be open Wednesday PV: is 5 – 9pm Thursday 7 May: 11am – 9pm Friday 8 May: 11am – 9pm Saturday 9 May: 10am – 6pm Sunday 10 May: 10am – 6pm There is a link to more information in my bio. #collectingceramics #ceramicart #collectingcraft #ceramicexhibition #porcelain

Organs of Power (2026). SOLD This new work has been selected for the Affordable Art Fair’s, inaugural Hampstead Ceramics Pavilion ‘Ceramics Unbound: Breaking tradition, embracing originality’ curated by Caroline Jackman. @affordableartfairuk @carolinejackmanartist Organs of Power continues my exploration of the architectural language of buildings, infrastructure and cities. The work starts with the small scale, with walking the city and experiencing things close up. But the result is something that speaks of the larger scale with its suggestions of machinery, flows of power, networks and internal mechanisms. We might be looking at vertical and horizontal slice through a building revealing its inner core of shafts, chimneys and corridors. But Organs of Power is also about the human body and our own internal systems of power. The textured blocks of red are used to suggest blood pumping, powering our organs such as our arteries, our limbs and our brains. We are surrounded by structures of power, both mechanical and biological. This small work in porcelain (24 x 15 x 0.2 cm) hints at the enormity of that power. The AAF Hampstead will be open: Wednesday 6 May (PV): 5 – 9pm Thursday 7 May: 11am – 9pm Friday 8 May: 11am – 9pm Saturday 9 May: 10am – 6pm Sunday 10 May: 10am – 6pm There is a link to more information in my bio. #porcelain #porcelainpostcards #postcards #abstractart #contemporaryceramics

To celebrate International Earth Day on Wednesday 22nd April, we are launching the first of four conversations held in the @british_ceramics_biennial studios, with the aim of uncovering themes informing the work exhibited as part of their flagship AWARD exhibition. This first episode joins @alisonlrees and @clairebaily as they discuss ways of engaging with the environment, methods of material research and in particular, responding to construction of the HS2 train line, and what that might reveal in creative and ecological terms. We extend thanks to @cew_wood and her amazing team at BCB for hosting us. Thanks also to Louise Trodden from the HS2 Arts & Culture Team who bought the project 'From Waste to Resource: Circular Economies for Construction Spoil Clay' into being. This episode will go LIVE on the 22nd simply search for ‘Flightlines’ on Spotify. Flightlines aims to collate occupational folklore surrounding the wider field of ceramics to celebrate the flexibility of thought and action that moves between the studio and lives lived with clay. An ongoing project generously supported by @cardiffmetcsad @cardiffmet Useful links: Uncovering An Occupational Folklore Surrounding ceramics: /view/2853340/2853341 From waste to resource BCB Clay Research project: /news/from-waste-to-resource/ Claire Baily: Alison Rees: #earthday @haumea_ecoversity #ArtistsForEarth #CreativePractice #ArtAndEcology #CulturalChange @carotill @franklintill @johnnquinton @sara__howard @goldenearthstudio @_recollective_ @rescuedclay @sarah_earthli_projects @bahbak2000 @ebukigram @emaad22 @tuckeydesignstudio @localworkstudio @bc_asm @_sarah_fraser