The Ceramist

2 August 2018 - 1 September 2018

As part of Edinburgh Art Festival we are delighted to present The Ceramist. Bodil Manz is an artist who has an international reputation for her work in ceramic, in particular her sublime wafer thin porcelain vessels.

Born in Copenhagen in 1943, Manz graduated from the School of Arts and Craft, Copenhagen in 1965 and went on to study at the Escuela de Diseño y Artesanias in Mexico and Berkeley University in California. She established a studio with her late husband, ceramist Richard Manz, in 1967 in Horve, where she continues to live and work today. The deceptively simple cylinder is the vehicle for Bodil Manz’s art. Casting porcelain slip to create delicate semi-transparent vessels, Manz has spent over three decades refining her exploration of the cylinder form. Sometimes the finest of lines are traced and revealed across the inner and outer surface and in other works solid blocks of colour, reminiscent of the palette of Soviet painters of the twenties, provide geometric counterpoints to the delicacy of form and material.

Born: 1943
Place of Birth: Copenhagen

Bodil Manz has been known as a master of eggshell porcelain for many years now. She studied ceramics at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen, then at the Escuelo de Diseno y Artesanias in Mexico and Berkeley University in California, USA. Bodil was shortlisted as one of the finalists for the LOEWE craft prize 2021.

Her cylinders are slip cast porcelain, which she decorated with geometrical patterns on both sides, applied with plain decals. The effect is a pattern on the one side, offset by a shadow of a related pattern on the other. They are so translucent, you can sometimes discern the light passing through them, creating wonderful shadows and drama.

In August 2023 we present Bodil Manz at 80 as part of our Festival Presentation – Wonder Women. Bodil Manz was the subject of a solo exhibition, The Ceramist, as part of our Festival presentation in August 2018.

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