KYRA CANE
When you choose to invest in an object you also share in the choices that have resulted in its production. For some this will involve design and manufacturing processes, but for me, creating pots is inextricably linked with making things using my own two hands.
In a world where most work relies on collaborative activities, it is extraordinary to be responsible for producing a finished object from beginning to end; simultaneously a great pleasure which is always tinged with the fear of failure.
The materials I use are complex and of the highest quality: porcelain clay, stain, oxides, glaze, paper, paint, ink, crayons, pastels, graphite and charcoal. But the tools and equipment I use are strong and basic, throwing wheels, ribs, wires, scales, bins, buckets, boards, brushes and kilns.
With these I throw, turn, mark, colour, glaze and fire the pots that I make and then recycle
the remnants of my precious clay which has been thousands of years in its making.
POTTER
Qualifications:
BA (Hons) 1st Class Ceramics,
Camberwell School of Art.
Postgraduate Art Teachers’ Certificate
Goldsmiths College, London.
Exhibitions:
2020 Common Ground , Craft Study Centre,
Farnham.
2019 Brushed : Gallery Top , Rowsley, Derbyshire.
2019 Yixing, China : selected exhibition
2019 Ceramic Art London
2018 Ceramic Art London
2018 Brook Street Gallery, Hay on Wye
2017 Ceramics Biennale
2017 Earth and Fire Ceramic Fair
2017 Ceramic Art London
2016 Ceramic Art London
2016 Bevere Gallery, Worcestershire.
2015 National Glass Centre, Sunderland.
2015 Lowe-Holland Gallery, Penryn, Cornwall.
2015 Ceramic Art London.
2014 Out of Sight – Drawing in the lives of Makers
Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
2014 Ceramic Art London.
2013 ‘White Out’
Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
2013 ‘Making and Drawing’,
Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire.
2013 Collect – Saatchi Gallery, London.
2013 Stroud International Textile Festival.
2012 Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
2012 Material Matters – Rag factory London E1.
2012 Tradition and Innovation:
five decades of Harrow Ceramics.
Contemporary Applied Arts, London
2010 ‘Lustre’, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham.
2009 Ceramic Art London.
2007 Firing Thoughts. Manchester.
2007 Collect: V&A.
2006 Institute of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.
2006 Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London.
2006 Ceramic Art London.
2005 Carlin Gallery, Paris.
2005 Art London, Sarah Myerscough.
2005 Ceramic Art London.
2004 'Graft' Harley Foundation Studio Show
Harley Gallery, Welbeck. Nottinghamshire.
2004 MACBA Barcelona (Museum of
Contemporary Art) Arts Council Show.
2004 Totally Teabowls.
Oakwood Gallery. Nottinghamshire.
2004 'Bloomers'
Contemporary Ceramics Gallery. London.
2004 Firbob and Peacock. Knutsford. Cheshire.
2004 Affordable Art Fair. London
(John Noott Gallery).
2003 John Noott Galleries, Broadway Modern,
Gloucestershire.
2003 Wessex Fine Arts and Ceramics, Dorset.
2003 New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham.
2002 Christmas Show.
Bircham Gallery, Holt, Norfolk.
2002 SOFA Chicago (White Gallery).
2002 Grange Barn Galleries. Group Show.
2001 SOFA Chicago (White Gallery).
2001 ‘Painterly Pots’
Brewery Arts Centre. Cirencester.
2000 Chelsea Crafts Fair, London.
1999 Christmas Show.
The Gallery Upstairs. Henley in Arden
1998 Summer Show.
The Gallery Upstairs. Henley in Arden.
1997 Chelsea Crafts Fair, London.
1997 Rufford Craft Centre,
Nottinghamshire Major Group Show .
1995 Studio Ceramics '94',
Victoria and Albert Museum, U.K.
1991 'Decorative Ceramics', Rufford Craft Centre.
1991 Chelsea Crafts Fair, London.
1990 Chelsea Crafts Fair, London.
1989 Chelsea Crafts Fair, London.
1989 'New Faces'
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
1989 'Harrow Connection' Touring Show:
Northern Contemporary Arts Centre
Crafts Council, London.
1988 Cecilia Colman Gallery.
1988 'Shape and Surface' Touring Show:
Gainsborough’s House, Suffolk
Peterborough Museum
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh.
Solo Exhibitions:
2019 Twenty Twenty Gallery, Ludlow.
2018 From Light to Dark Contemporary Ceramics
Centre, London.
2016 Bircham Gallery, Norfolk
2014 ‘A life of Making and Drawing’
Millenium Gallery, Sheffield.
2008 Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire.
2002 White Gallery, Brighton.
2001 Hart Gallery, London.
1999 Bettles Gallery, Hampshire.
1995 Galerie ‘L’ Hamburg, Germany.
1995 Hart Gallery, London.
1994 'Pour When Inclined'
Canvas Galler, London.
1993 'Pots and Paintings', Traquair, Scotland.
1990 Montpellier Gallery, Cheltenham.
1989 'New Work' Sue Williams Gallery,
Portobello Road, London.
1987 'Pots and Paintings',
Field Gallery, Nottingham.
1985 Paintings and Pots
Midland Group, Nottingham.
Commissions:
2019 Installation piece for Spectrum Cruise Liner
2017 Indescon Hotel London
2016 Installation piece for Oceania Cruise Liner
2013 Pots for Shangri La Hotel,
The Shard, London.
2005 Large vessels for P&O Cruise Liner
(ARCADIA).
1995 Presentation Piece for Queen Elizabeth
on the opening of the Queens Building
at University of Westminster.
Collections :
Centre of Ceramic Art York
Rufford Ceramic Collection
Curatorial Work:
2019 Brushed : Gallery Top , Rowsley, Derbyshire.
2014 Out of Sight – Drawing in the lives of Makers
Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
2013 Making and Drawing
Harley Gallery. Welbeck. Nottinghamshire.
This exhibition revealed the secret lives of
artists and makers; showing their private
drawings alongside the finished works that
they inspire, inform or create.
2003 Ceramic Contemporaries 4
Chair of the NACHE (the National
Association of Ceramics in Higher Education)
exhibition committee.
Co-organised, produced and curated this
nationally touring show which provided an
overview of contemporary practice selected
by a jury of four nationally and
internationally renowned artists, critics and
curators. (Edmund de Waal, Andrew Lord,
Keeley Traae and Moira Vincentelli).
Royal College of Art, London; Harley Gallery;
Wrexham Art Gallery; Collins Gallery,
Glasgow; Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Writings:
2012 MAKING AND DRAWING –
published by Bloomsbury.
Various reviews for Ceramic Review and
catalogue prefaces 2003 – 2013.
Grants and Awards:
2010 Major Arts Council Award.
2005 Arts Council – Small Grant Award,
Ceramic Art London.
2000 Residency at Rufford Ceramic Centre.
1997 East Midland Arts Award.
1989 East Midland Arts Grant for Publicity and
assistance in attending Chelsea Crafts Fair
for the first time.
1987 Crafts Council Setting up Grant.
Current Positions:
Chair of the Trustee Board of the Craft
Pottery Charitable Trust
Employment:
2017 onwards
Visiting Tutor: West Dean College of
Arts and Conservation, Sussex.
2017 -
2019 Visiting Artist at the Flying High Academy,
Bilsthorpe
Visiting Artist at Godolphin School, Salisbury.
2013 –
2017 External Examiner for BA Hons Ceramics,
Limerick School of Art and Design
2011 -
2016 External Examiner for BA Hons 3D Design,
University of the Creative Arts2001 –
2009 Course Leader BA (Hons) Ceramics.
Harrow Campus University of Westminster.
2007 External Examiner: University of Glasgow.
2006 External Examiner: Royal College of Art.
1993 –
1994 Derby University
Part time Ceramics Lecturer,
BA Hons Applied Arts.
1990 –
2001 Harrow Campus University of Westminster
Half time (.5) Lecturer, BA (Hons) Ceramics.
1986 –
2000 Lecturer in Ceramics and Drawing.
1987 –
1997 West Nottinghamshire College of Further
Education Part - time Lecturer, Foundation
and GAD / GNVQ Art and Design courses.
1987 –
1988 Bretton Hall College, West Yorkshire
Part -Time Lecturer in Ceramics.
1986 –
1990 West Nottinghamshire College of Further
Education Part time lecturer in Ceramics.
Adult Education.
1986 –
1990 Harrow College of Higher Education
Part time lecturer with responsibility
for drawing. Ceramics HND Course.
1986 –
1989 Goldsmiths College. Visiting Lecturer.
Professional Societies:
Fellow of the Craft Potters Association
of Great Britain.
Chair: NACHE (National Association for
Ceramics in Higher Education).
Chair of the Ceramic Contemporaries 4
NACHE Exhibition Committee.
Selected member of Contemporary
Applied Arts.
Catalogues:
Essay by Emmanuel Cooper -
‘Parallel Lines’ - September 2008.
Short text by Edmund de Waal for
Catalogue 2005.
Essay by Edmund de Waal -
‘The pleasurable activity of the journey’
The ceramics of Kyra Cane.
Short Essay by Emmanuel Cooper for the
Hart Gallery Show 1995.
Essay by John Houston -
'Pour when Inclined' 1994.
Articles, Inclusion in Books and Critical Reviews:
Contemporary Ceramics -
Emmanuel Cooper 2009.
The Ceramics Design Course -
Anthony Quinn 2008.
Sources of Inspiration: For Ceramics and
the Applied Arts.
Carolyn Genders 2004.
Article - Ceramic Review Jan/ Feb 2001.
Article - Neue Keramik (German Publication)
May - June 1996 Page 150.
Studio Pottery Dec / Jan 1994/95.
Magazine Nov/ Dec 1994. Pages 53 and 54.
CURRICULUM VITAE
ARTIST STATEMENT
The guises of clay are varied and extraordinary however my continuous interest in vessels means that pots are my great love. They link one to a history of making objects, from the china painted bowl I found and treasured as a child and the early Persian bowls with simple patterns that I admire, to the battered metal containers that hang on my studio wall. They are part of a consistent thread of influences which include paintings, and an appreciation of that which is made by hand.
I use a wheel because the immediacy of ones response to actions demands undivided attention, the speed at which decisions are made remains a constant challenge and the soft fluid process of turning a solid lump of clay into a voluminous fine walled structure never fails to excite me.
At every stage of making I try to capture something of the freedom I find in throwing.
I choose Limoges Porcelain for its colour when both raw and fired, and its strength in
the heat of the kiln. Making for me is also about working with risk, surfaces react to the slightest touch, traces of hand and tool remain, bowls move and twist, materials melt
and fuse.
I wrap bold, ostensibly black marks, around the porcelain forms, animating and defining spaces; brushmarks fade and blur, inky opaque bands change to pale fresh air blues with occasional flashes of yellow. There are remnants in these vessels of the vast landscapes which have always been my inspiration.
