COLLECT 2025

Ebony Russell

b. Australia

Ebony Russell is an Australian ceramic artist who uses an unorthodox approach to construct ceramic sculptures. Her unique technique was developed out of an interest in gendered aesthetics, labour and traditional craft practices where Russell methodically pipes porcelain in series of intricate layers to build gravity- defying forms. Challenging the traditional making processes of decorative vessels; in her works the decoration becomes the structure, and the boundaries between the two are erased. Exploring established perceptions of cultural and artistic practices that were once exclusively coded as feminine and thus insignificant, Russell’s work celebrates the decorative, promiscuous aesthetics and politics of purity; the superficial, excess and delight – with pleasure.

Russell completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Honours) at Monash University in 2003 and in 2019 graduated from The National Art School Sydney with a Masters of Fine Art. Russell has won many awards including the Franz International Rising Star Award in 2018 and the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize in 2023. Major exhibitions include ‘Think Pinker’, Gavlak Gallery Los Angeles (2023), ‘SABOTAJE ESTEìTICO’, Yusto Giner Gallery, Spain (2022), ‘Halcyon Days’, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco (2022), ‘Clay Dynasty’, The Powerhouse Museum (2022), ‘Interconnected’, NERAM (2022). Young Masters Art Prize, London (2023), Teetering on the Brink, Claire Oliver Gallery, Harlem New York (2024), and Homo Faber, Venice (2024). Ebony Rusesell has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2025 Brookfield Properties Craft Award.

Read the Art Mama feature here.

Ebony Russell was Highly Commended for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize 2023 and winner of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award 2025 in collaboration with Collect Art Fair, Crafts Council and Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Matt Smith

b. 1971, Cambridgeshire, UK

Matt Smith is a multi award-winning artist based in Ireland and England. Acclaimed solo exhibitions include Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Flux: Parian Unpacked at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Who Owns History at Hove Museum and Queering the Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In 2015/16 he was artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He holds a PhD from the University of Brighton and was Professor at Konstfack University, Stockholm.

In 2020 he was awarded the inaugural Brookfield Properties Craft Award at Collect and the Contemporary Art Society acquired a body of his work for Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. His work is also held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum of Scotland, National Museum of Northern Ireland and the Crafts Council collection.

In 2024, Matt Smith received a significant commission for a new exhibition at Kensington Palace titled Untold Lives: A Palace at Work, uncovering the forgotten stories of those who worked at the royal palaces over 300 years ago. He created a poignant series of plates that narrate the story of Gustavus Guydickens, a Gentleman Usher at Queen Charlotte’s court, who was disgraced after being accused of homosexuality. Find out more about: Shame: 'The Sad and Melancholy Tale of Gustavus Guydickens, 1730-1802' By Matt Smith, 2023

'Untold Lives: a fascinating peek below stairs at a royal palace' read The Telegraph article here.
Click to watch a video of Matt Smith explaining how he created his new body of work 'The Sad and Melancholy Tale of Gustavus Guydickens 1730-1802'
Watch video: Untold Lives | Dan Snow Investigates Forgotten Stories at Kensington Palace

Matt Smith is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was the winner of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2014.

Carolyn Tripp
b. 1962, UK

Carolyn Tripp graduated from Camberwell Collage of arts in 1998 with a degree in ceramics. Whilst raising her family Carolyn taught ceramics within a mental health setting and became lead tutor for Studio 306 Collective an organisation that supports mental health recovery through creativity. In 2018 Carolyn returned to her own practice and currently works out of a studio at Wimbledon Arts Studios in South London.

On first observation Carolyn’s work sits within the blue and white ceramic tradition with the surface pattern and recurring curves, necks and bellies all thrown in porcelain. Up close the jewel like surface reveals the hidden visual diary that she collects. Overheard phrases, lyrics, flowers, patterns and memory, are recorded in photography and drawings, leading to the creation of sheets of story. Printed onto paper and then torn or cut to disguise them (so that she retains ownership and privacy of some very personal memories,) each piece is placed individually onto the surface of the vessel. This creates a new “story” each time, full of refences that may connect with the viewer, so sparking imagination and memory.

In 2020 Carolyn was selected for the Hot House programme with the Crafts Council and she has gone on to show her work in galleries throughout the UK as well as selling work overseas. Her recent exhibitions include The Whitehouse Gallery in Scotland, Future Icons Selects for London Craft Week at Barge House Oxox Tower Wharf, and the Spring Exhibition at the Bevere Gallery. Carolyn has completed several commissions including a series of works for the Norwegian Cruises newest ships Prima, Viva and Aqua and she is also a trustee of Studio 306 Collective. Carolyn was a trustee of London Potters Charity from 2019-2024.

Carolyn Tripp has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Saeri Seo

b. 1992, Korea

The ‘Moon Jar’ is a representative piece of Korean traditional pottery of the Joseon Dynasty that has contributed the elevating the reputation of Korean ceramics worldwide. Historically, the moon jar was associated only with male roles, as women were not allowed to produce or access the studio due to the belief that they brought bad luck. To overcome a childhood and adolescence coloured by this belief (and accompanying abuse), SaeRi began destroying her works to reveal her trauma, incorporating shapes from Korean representative ceramics as her cultural background influenced her mental struggles. By detonating the beautiful pottery, she stepped forward and started communicating with the world.

SaeRi Seo studied ceramics for her BA at Seoul Women’s University, and went on to complete a Masters in Ceramics and Makers at Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2022. Recent exhibitions and awards include: NAE Open 2023, New Art Exchange (2023), RBA Rising Stars Exhibition, The Royal Over-Seas League (2023), and nominated as a finalist for the BADA Art Award (2022).

SaeRi Seo was selected for Homo Faber 2024: The Journey of Life, coinciding with the Venice Biennale, further establishing her presence in the international art scene. SaeRi Seo made her debut at Collect with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2024 and will soon showcase her work at the prestigious British Art Fair later this year, marking another significant milestone in her artistic career.

SaeRi Seo was the winner of the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award in 2023.

Freya Bramble-Carter

b. 1991, UK

Freya Bramble-Carter is a London-based ceramic artist, known for creating contemporary designs, often strongly inspired by a balancing flow of femininity and masculinity, with an appreciation for the power of nature and the universe we live in. Freya combines her lifestyle of imagining and working with clay, as well as her life experiences and personal philosophies, into one—changing delusion and enjoyment into a unified expression. She strives to live in the most authentic way true to herself, in order to learn about life and expand.

Freya’s work ranges from fine homewares, including plates and bowls, to large outdoor sculptural pieces and water features for interior or outdoor spaces. Applying her talent to artisan glazes and handcrafting unique silhouettes, Freya's limited-edition pieces are designed to elevate spaces and evoke awe, often through beauty and tactile appeal. Freya’s connectivity to her practice extends to her body of work within international workshops. The practice connects mind, body, and soul, allowing her creative expression to be shared with all.

In her series for the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair 2024, Freya's inspiration comes from the everyday, shaped by her unique upbringing. With a clowning mother and a potting father, Freya has recently begun to share how these early experiences influence her work. Childhood memories—echoes of serene moments in British schools—find their way into her art, flowing through her imagination like a quiet stream of reflection.

Freya is fascinated by the way we filter our complex thoughts through personal narratives, like a sieve that shapes our perspective. Her art invites us to question the roles we play and the characters we embody, often unconsciously.

"I like to think of my pieces as people, whether they are figurative or not," Freya says. "Throughout the making process, I feel a connection with the final outcome—and here they are: fantastical, otherworldly creations. Alien clay. So, I have to ask—do you believe in aliens?"

Freya, a 2013 graduate of Chelsea School of Art, has been represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2021. Notable exhibitions include Collect 2022–2024, Art Miami debut 2022, "Body Vessel Clay" curated by Dr. Jareh Das, and "Like Paradise" at Claridge's, curated by Ekow Eshun. In 2023, Freya was featured on Alexa's Art Tour with British Vogue, where she and Alexa Chung delved into discussions about change and artistic expression during an insightful interview held in Freya's studio. Earlier in 2024, Freya was one of six London-based artists featured in the Uniqlo & JW Anderson Spring/Summer 2024 collection, celebrating its rich historical context.

Freya Bramble-Carter is represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Jemma Gowland

b. 1965, UK

Jemma Gowland’s work explores the way that girls are constrained from birth to conform to an appearance and code of behavior, to present a perfect face, and maintain the expectations of others. The use of porcelain, or of stoneware with layered disrupted surfaces, denote value yet describe the vulnerability beneath. Her most recent work draws on the traditional history of the figurine, from Meissen to the present; echoing the white unglazed finish with gold lustre. Current themes build on this tradition, with its symbolism of the female figure as ornament and object, to highlight issues of growing up female in the modern world. View a Catalogue of the new work.

Jemma Gowland trained for a BSc in Engineering Product Design, working in industrial design and architectural model making before becoming a teacher of Design and Technology, a career she followed for many years. Ceramics became first a hobby, and then a full-time occupation after leaving teaching in 2014. Her deepening interest in the immense possibilities of ceramics as a material led to further study, culminating in the City Lit Ceramics Diploma, London, graduating in 2019. Awards and exhibitions include: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2023), Royal Cambrian Academy of Art Open Exhibition (2023), Collect Open (2022), Bevere Graduate Award (2019-20), and Potclays student award, Art in Clay (2019). In 2024, Jemma’s work was featured in the Newstead Project, celebrating the Byron bicentenary at his home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. That same year, she made her debut at Collect with the Cynthia Corbett Gallery and is set to showcase her work at the prestigious British Art Fair, marking another major milestone in her artistic career.

Jemma Gowland was Highly Commended for the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award in 2023.

Emilie Taylor

b.1980, Sheffield, UK

Emilie Taylor uses heritage crafts, particularly traditional slipware, to interpret and represent post-industrial landscapes. Emilie is interested in the vessel or container as a metaphor for how we seek to contain communities, and community rituals, within British society, and has an ongoing interest in the firing process as alchemically potent and symbolic of change. 

'I handbuild my work using coils or slabs, and decorate using slip, sgraffito, and handmade stencils. Once a piece is built in clay I layer the decoration with different thicknesses of slip and a combination of tight formal patterns and looser hand drawn and printed slip designs.

I then draw landscapes and narratives onto the decorated surface, figures, and buildings I will have photographed and drawn when researching the themes for the work. I sometimes need to build up three to four layers of slip before using a sgraffito tool to add lines and movement drawing in the detail. After a bisque fire the pieces are glazed and fired again to stoneware temperature. I then add 18ct gold lustre or handprinted gold transfers and fire the work a third and final time to bond the gold with the glaze.'

Her work offers a new interpretation to the contemporary urban context and its severance with ties to past community rituals. Large pieces and installations blur the boundaries between Gallery and Museum, Fine Art, and the anthropological elements of Craft.

Emilie draws inspiration from folklore, feminism, and community dynamics, often referencing ancient stories and local histories in her creations. Her work, deeply rooted in slipware traditions, tells personal and political stories, challenging contemporary narratives. Emilie's pieces are exhibited globally, including at 'Lives Less Ordinary' at Two Temple Place, and are held in prestigious public collections such as the V&A and Gallery Oldham. She received the Cynthia Corbett Gallery & Young Masters ‘Focus on the Female’ Award in 2022, affirming her impact on the art world.

Emilie trained in Fine Art (BA hons First Class) at Liverpool John Moores, graduating 2001, and has a Masters in Art Psychotherapy that informs her ideas about the anthropological significance of making in communities and community ritual. She has lectured about her practice at the Royal College, Cheltenham Literature Festival, on behalf of Arts Council England and the Crafts Council. As well as at many universities and art institutions. Emilie has completed residencies in the UK and abroad, and has exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Ruthin Craft Centre, Gallery Oldham, and the Arts & Crafts House Blackwell. She had a solo exhibition (Tubthumping) which opened on March 8th 2023 at the National Civil War Centre. The body of work included in the show took as a subject the experiences of women in the early modern period and explored the similarities linking them and the experiences of women today. Her work forms part of public and private collections. In addition, Cynthia Corbett Gallery & its not-for-profit art initiative Young Masters Art Prize were invited by the Michelangelo Foundation to feature Emilie Taylor's artwork in their inaugural Homo Faber exhibition in Venice during the Biennale d'Arte in April 2022.

In 2024 Emilie will be working with Bradford Museums to create new pieces for their collection and will also be working with the Stradling Collection in Bristol to respond to the slipware ceramics of Sam Haile held in their collection. Both projects will culminate in exhibitions later in the year.

She will also lead an ongoing project with women exiting the criminal justice system who will be creating ceramic work for exhibition in 2025.

Emilie Taylor is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was the winner of the Focus On The Female Young Masters Art Award 2021.