Clive Bowen is one of the leading figures of British studio pottery and, now in his eighties, continues to work at the pottery he established at Shebbear in North Devon in 1971. This exhibition marks fifty five years of making there, tracing a sustained and singular commitment to the language of slipware. From the beginning, Shebbear has been both workshop and home, shaped by shared labour, hospitality and a belief in pottery as part of daily life, alongside his wife Rosie. Bowen’s work has developed with quiet assurance over five decades. Though rooted in the English slipware tradition, in recent years he has spent time in Japan, where his pots have found a strong response, extending a conversation around slip decoration and firing that continues to inform the work shown here.
Folk at Heart
Featured artists:
Michael Agnew | Julia Albert-Recht | Gary Anderson | Malcolm Appleby | Lise Bech | Stephen Bird | Kate Black | Clive Bowen | Colin Brown | Pauline Burbidge | John Byrne | Jonathan Christie | Martin Clark | Fitch & McAndrew | Alan Furneaux | Joe Ginniff | Owen Jones | Jonny Hannah | Mark Hearld | Joe Hogan | Andrew Holmes | Tracey Johnston | Jane Keith | Rachel Larkins | Diana Leslie | Angie Lewin | Anna Liebmann | Vicky Lindo & Bill Brookes | Adrian McCurdy | Michael McVeigh | Katrin Moye | Helen Munday | Jo Pond | Claire Roberts | Terry Shone| Sylvia von Hartmann | D. Baron | W.A. Donkers | Georgian Antiques | Carola Gordon | R.G. Howard | George Manchester | Grégoire Michonze | Asiru Olatunde | Margaret Kemplay Snowdon | Tim Stead | The Thrie Estaits | Carel Weight | Ann MacFarlane | Harold Leng
A catalogue to accompany the exhibition, Masters of Slipware.
We are delighted to present two masters, Clive Bowen & Masaaki Shibata, together for the first time in the United Kingdom, linking artists working in two distant parts of the world who share the same enduring passion for the language of clay. Masters of Slipware succeeds in joining two potteries from east and west: Sasayama (Tamba, Japan) and Shebbear (Devon). Together, in Clive’s words, these two masters ‘communicate through pots’ and both believe in the ‘values of craftsmanship and truth to materials above all else.’
