Artist statement
I saw a building I knew, but only the facade remained: a thin slice of the building, its remaining volume removed. I asked myself: if you can remove the volume from a building, could I do the same with clay? Could I work with a light, thin slice of clay? A page of clay?
My practice uses porcelain, thinly rolled, to create a strong, yet fragile looking, minimal form. It draws upon the language of the paper page – its repeatable dimensions, thinness, use of borders and grid layout – to tell abstract stories in clay. The stories I tell are of person and of place, of the ordinary and the everyday, and of nimbleness and agility within a sometimes weighty world. My work is rooted in walking and wayfaring and the sense of freedom I gain from putting one foot in front of the other. I am interested in abstracting information from my environment and, through colour, repetition and variation, making something new from it. The resulting language is an expression of how I see and experience the world.
Through this deliberate reduction in volume and process, a minimal three-dimensional object emerges which contains layers of meaning without material weight.
Artist Biography
Alison Rees (b. 1970) studied Archaeology at Nottingham University before completing a Ceramics MA in 2014, and PhD in 2023, at the Royal College of Art.
Alison combines the materiality of clay with the language of the paper page, to tell an abstract story of self and place. She actively and materially engages with the landscape around her to create surface compositions which reflect the visual environment experienced and observed. Her multi-layered work achieves as much as possible with as little as possible, exploring themes such as repetition and variation; perfection and imperfection; temporality and flexibility; lightness and minimality; grids and edges; borders and framing; and colour and spatial organisation.
In 2024 Alison was selected to exhibit at Collect Art Fair by the Crafts Council; she was chosen by World of Interiors to mark twenty years of Collect; she was selected to exhibit in 50/50 by Unit 1 Gallery/Workshop; and she was recently shortlisted for the Charlotte Fraser Ceramics Prize at the Holt Festival. She will be exhibiting three works at the Mall Galleries ING Discerning Eye this November. In 2015, she won the Design History Society’s essay prize for her research into the life cycle of London’s post-war ceramic murals.
Artist CV
Education
2023 PhD Ceramics, Royal College of Art
Thesis – Turning the Page: a New Dimension to the Language of Ceramics with Reference to Wayfaring, Porcelain Paperclay and the Archetype of the Paper Page
2014 MA Ceramics, Royal College of Art
Dissertation (Distinction) – Physical Reminders: Tracing a Ceramic Mural’s Presence and Absence in Post-war London
2011 Diploma Ceramics (Distinction), City Lit
2004 Art Foundation, Wimbledon School of Art
1992 BA Archaeology, University of Nottingham
Prizes and awards
2024 Shortlisted for the Charlotte Fraser Ceramics Prize, Holt Festival, Holt, Norfolk
2024 Selected by Gianluca Longo, for World of Interiors, as one of twenty artists in celebration twenty years of Collect, Somerset House, London
2022 Selected by Travers Smith to exhibit work in their offices for a year as part of their Art Programme
2015 Winner, Design History Society’s Postgraduate Essay Prize: Physical Reminders: Tracing a Ceramic Mural’s Presence and Absence in Post-war London
Selected exhibitions
2025 Award Artist, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent (6 September to 19 October 2025 more information here)
2024 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
2024 Holt Festival, Holt, Norfolk
2024 50/50, Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London
2024 Collect Open 2024, Somerset House, London
2023 Travers Smith Art Programme 2022-23, 10 Snow Hill, London – online catalogue
2023 Undertow, Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London
2022 Travers Smith Art Programme 2022-23, 10 Snow Hill, London – online catalogue
2022 The Futurists, Mint, 3-5 Duke Street, London
2022 RCA 2022, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2022 Unruly Encounters, Lake Gallery Southwark Park, London
2019 Undertow, 171 Morning Lane, London and online at Undertow Research
2019 There is Something Lurking in the Shadows That Might be Interesting, Royal College of Art, London
2018 Flight Mode, Assembly Point, London
2018 Materialise, 7 Wetherby Gardens, London
2018 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2017 The Emerging and the Established, Christies, London
2017 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2014 Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London
2014 Ceramic Art London, RCA Student Show, London
2014 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2013 Anima, Asylum, London
2013 Ceramic Art London, RCA Student Show, London
2013 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2012 New Designers: One Year On, Business Design Centre, London
2012 Open studios, Vanguard Court, London
2011 New Designers, Business Design Centre, London
2011 Open studios, Vanguard Court, London
2011 Diploma Graduation Show, The City Lit Institute, London