British Art Fair: Saatchi Gallery

DEBORAH AZZOPARDI

b. 1958, UK

Deborah Azzopardi is a British contemporary artist, lives and works in London, best known for her bold, playful works in her very unique Pop Art style. Over the past four decades, she has developed a distinct visual language that draws on the flat, graphic aesthetic of 1960s American Pop Art, echoing the influence of Roy Lichtenstein with a uniquely British, feminine perspective. Working with vibrant colour palettes, bold outlines, and subtle tonal shading, Deborah’s distinctive style is widely recognised, admired, and collected around the world. Her iconic painting Ssshh… has had global recognition, and her collection of art images has become widely reproduced in the contemporary art world.

Early in her career in the 1980s, Deborah was licensed by The Walt Disney Company, sharpening her skills in graphic narrative and composition. Deborah’s canvases often depict cropped close-ups of women in moments of intimacy, surprise, or mischief, infused with humour, sensuality, and pop culture flair. She continues to live and work in London, evolving her practice while maintaining the visual immediacy and charm that have become her signature.

In March 2014, the artist held her first solo UK exhibition of original works and limited editions, presented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery on Cork Street, London. The occasion also marked the launch of her debut book Sshh…, which showcases a decade of her work and features over 100 images, along with a foreword by art critic Estelle Lovatt FRSA. As Lovatt writes, “America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!”

Lovatt goes on to comment: “Sometimes you just want to curl up under a blanket. With a good book. A piece of chocolate. A man. This is what Deborah Azzopardi’s pictures make me feel like doing. They are me. They remind me of the time I had a red convertible sports car. I had two, actually. And yes, they are you, too. You immediately, automatically, engage with the narrative of Azzopardi’s conversational visual humour. Laughter is the best aphrodisiac, as you know. ... There’s plenty of art historical references from... Manet’s suggestive Olympia; Boucher’s thought-provoking... Louise O’Murphy and Fragonard’s frivolous, knickerless, The Swing.... Unique in approach, you easily recognise an Azzopardi picture. ... Working simple graphics and toned shading (for depth), the Pop Art line that Azzopardi sketches is different to Lichtenstein’s. Hers is more curvaceous. Feminine.”

The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat Dating series (2004/08), the iconic One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer (2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand.

Deborah Azzopardi was awarded the Young Masters Focus On The Female Art Created During Lockdown Award 2021 for her work ‘Unabashed’.

Deborah Azzopardi has been represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2010.

MARGO SELBY

b. 1977, Eastbourne, UK

Selby is an artist and designer working with colour and geometric form in textiles. She makes handwoven artworks, and oversees the design work of the Margo Selby Studio for mill production and commercial textiles applications – her tenet being ‘Art Into Industry’ – an approach to making art that is akin to that of the ‘Old Masters’ and mistresses, with their expanded studios and public commissions.

Selby uses thread to create abstract geometric artworks that explore repetition and transition, symmetry and asymmetry, the dynamic and the stable. She is interested in the relationship between the body and the machine, hand and industry, craft and technology. The loom, and the disciplined nature of weaving as a practice, provides boundaries and constraints which can be tested. The orderly nature of the craft of weaving is reflected in the developing designs of the artworks. She is satisfied by rhythmic and uniform repetition – where each element of a composition is changed in a methodical progression.

The Shuttle Series:

Weaving, Technology, Space The Shuttle Series, a new body of large scale woven textile artworks by Margo Selby, is inspired by the intricate nature of the circuit boards and woven wire used in technology. The narrative parallels the woven threads of textiles and the wired connections of circuit boards and electrical engineering. This series follows the artist’s acclaimed ‘moonlanding’ installation at Somerset House, which was created alongside a musical score for 6 strings written by Helen Caddick. It tells the story of the women weavers who were involved in the making of the memory core and circuit boards for the Apollo 11, which in 1969 successfully landed on the moon. Through precise, graphic compositions and flowing colour transitions, the work explores the synergy between art, craftsmanship and engineering, considering the ways in which woven structures can create both functionality and visual stimulation. Colour is always central to Margo Selby’s work, carefully orchestrating transitions and gradients of colour to conjure the vibrant energy found in space: deep inky sky, celestial objects, and gradients of aurora colour. Complementing the vibrant palette, the graphic patterns are deliberately designed to resemble interwoven elements. These create a sense of layer and depth, echoing the intricate structure of both traditional weaving and electrical circuit boards. Woven in British wool and cotton, the series embraces the tactile warmth of natural fibres while maintaining a sharp, structured aesthetic reminiscent of the organised nature of wires within technology and engineering. These sculptural works invite viewers to reflect on the interwoven nature of art, science, and technology and how threads—whether in fabric or in code—shape the world around us. Note: each work is designed to be viewed in the round, with an ‘Aspect 1’ and ‘Aspect 2’.

Margo Selby pursued her studies at Chelsea College of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art in London, with an additional term at the prestigious Atelier National d’Art in Paris. She now teaches across various institutions and runs her own studio, where she leads specialist weaving workshops. In 2020, she was awarded the Crafts Council’s Collect Open Award for her monumental textile installation Vexillum at Somerset House, followed by the esteemed Turner Medal in 2021, recognizing her as “Britain’s Greatest Colourist.” That same year, she delivered the Turner Lecture, offering a personal insight into her creative practice. Her work was featured widely throughout 2022, with appearances at major applied arts and craft fairs including Collect, London Craft Week, and the London Art Fair. In 2023, Selby exhibited at Art Miami, the British Art Fair, and once again at Collect. In 2025 she presented her acclaimed piece Moon Landing within the historic setting of Canterbury Cathedral.

DAISY MCMULLAN

b. 1985, UK

Daisy McMullan is an artist who creates richly layered paintings that document the natural world.

Inspired by magical realism and the ever-changing soul of the landscape, her work employs expressive colour and mark-making to craft otherworldly interpretations of everyday scenes. Her shimmering paintings capture the glimmers of hope and joy found in nature, for those willing to look closely enough.

Daisy’s paintings frequently feature the verges, lines, and paths that map out ways of navigating the world both physically and emotionally. These are places she walks regularly - overlooked, common spaces that belong to everyone and no one. They are small wildernesses, uncultivated and irregular, which Daisy transforms into imaginative compositions, with multiple layers of colour and glazes creating a sense of layered stories and narratives within these marginal spaces.

The compositions play with the sacred geometries of nature, such as spirals, circles and webs. These patterns are inspired by the research of artist and permaculture expert Liz Postlethwaite, and the writings on deep ecology and systems thinking by scholar Joanna Macy. Many of the paintings are marked by contrasting flatness and depth, manipulating traditional methods of conjuring perspective and depth on the painting's surface.

Each painting is a meditation on an interaction with the natural world—a rewilding of the mind, self, and soul. The Romantic ideals of returning to nature, individual spirituality, and treading ancient paths to commune with the metaphysical deeply influence her creative process.

Daisy's work also references Dutch Golden Age still life and forest floor paintings, where life, death, and spirit are carefully balanced and observed in sharply contrasting tones. Her expressive mark-making draws inspiration from Abstract Expressionism, particularly the works of Joan Mitchell and Lee Krasner. There is also a distinctive English folkloric quality to Daisy's paintings that resonates with the work of Albrecht Durer and Lucian Freud’s approach to painting plants.

These works serve as records of nature, preserving seemingly unimportant details for a future time. Yet they are also deeply concerned with the technology and theory of painting, involving constant and rigorous experiments with colour, opacity, viscosity, and temperature. Daisy carefully selects her palette to render plant life in a unique way that imparts feeling, texture, and movement to her paintings.

Natural forms in Daisy’s work are built using a combination of free, expressive strokes, textural stippling, and folk art-inspired lines that shape leaves and petals. The use of tonal layers, akin to the construction of a screen print, helps build movement and tension between translucent and opaque forms. A key technique of underpainting, inspired by the old masters, adds luminous depth. These ideas and techniques are gradually layered, with colour and light added incrementally until a beautiful image emerges from the dark.

Daisy trained as a fine artist at Wimbledon School of Art and Camberwell College of Arts, earning a BA (Hons) in Painting in 2007. She later pursued a Master’s in Curating at Chelsea College of Art and Design and was awarded a two-year Research Fellowship in 2012 at Chelsea Space, a public gallery at the College. Daisy currently works as an artist, educator, and curator.

Notable solo exhibitions by Daisy include 'Observed Imagined Remembered' at Cass Art Kingston (2022) and 'Rewildings' at Dorking Museum (2022). She has also participated in group shows including: ‘For the Love of Art History’, Young Masters Art Prize at the Exhibitionist Hotel, London (2025), ‘Milestone: 20 Years in Art’ and 'Summer Exhibition 2024' at Cynthia Corbett Gallery (2024), 'HERO' at Great West Gallery (2024), 'Mirror of Life' and 'Abstract Worlds' at Croydon Art Space (2024 and 2023), 'Winter Group Show' at Folkestone Art Gallery (2023), and the 'Young Masters' Invitational Exhibition at The Exhibitionist Hotel (2023-24).

Daisy made her debut at the British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2023 and returned with a new body of work in 2024. She was also selected for the Women in Art Fair Artist' Spotlight section in 2024, and was shortlisted for the SAA Artist of the Year People’s Choice Award in 2022.

Daisy works from her studio in Brixton, South London, creating paintings and exhibitions that reflect on nature and place. These works become emotional documents, depicting unseen feelings as much as they record the visible world.

ANDY BURGESS

b. 1969, London, UK

Lauded by Annabel Sampson, Deputy Editor of Tatler as “the next David Hockney” painter Andy Burgess, who hails from London but lives in Arizona, continues to expand upon his fascination with contemporary architecture. Burgess selects the subjects for his paintings with the discernment of the portrait painter. Buildings are chosen for their clean lines, bold geometric design, and dynamic forms. Burgess approaches his subjects with a fresh eye, simplifying and abstracting forms even further and inventing, somewhat irreverently, new colour schemes that expand the modernist lexicon beyond the minimalist white palette and rigid use of primary colours. Real places are sometimes re-invented, the architecture and design altered and modified, with new furniture and landscaping and a theatrical lighting that invests the painted scene with a dream-like quality and a peaceful and seductive allure.

Burgess explores in depth the genesis of modern architecture in Europe and the US and its relationship to modern art, avant-garde design, and abstract painting. Burgess explains his fascination with modernist architecture thusly:

‘Despite the huge impact of early modern architecture, the innovative and subtle minimalist buildings that I am researching, with their concrete and steel frames, flat roofs, and glass walls, never became the dominant mode of twentieth century building. We have continued to build the vast majority of houses in a traditional and conservative idiom, so that these great examples of modern architecture, designed by the likes of Gropius, Loos and Breuer to name but a few, are still shocking and surprising today in their boldness and modernity, almost a hundred years after they were built.’

Andy Burgess’s work combines two of his greatest artistic passions, mid-century and modernist architecture, and collage. In his series of highly intricate pieces, Burgess has used hand painted paper to construct renditions of his favourite modern architecture. Replacing acrylic paint with gorgeous permanent inks he has introduced another level of textural interest. The ink adds a beautiful translucency and wash-like textures to the surface of the image…. making the finished work somewhat tapestry and mosaic like. The pleasure of these works lies in the complex shapes, the analogue quality of the fabrication and the sparkling crystalline colors. Those familiar with his work will recognize some of the iconic subject matter such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s wonderful Guggenheim Museum and famous Fallingwater residence as well as Los Angeles classics such as The Stahl House and other desert modern masterpieces. But there is an eclectic range of architectural subjects that spans decades and continents in a quest to do justice to the architecture of modern times!

Alongside the large-scale paintings, Burgess creates collages which reflect his love of vintage graphics, particularly those from the 1930s–50s, a “golden age” in American graphic design and advertising. Burgess has been collecting vintage American ephemera for many years; this ephemera is then unapologetically deconstructed, cut up into tiny pieces and reconstructed into visual and verbal poems, dazzling multi-coloured pop art pieces, and constructed cityscapes.

Burgess has completed many important commissions for public and private institutions including Crossrail (London’s largest ever engineering project), Cunard, APL shipping, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, a new medical centre in San Jose, California and most recently, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

In 2021 Andy Burgess started creating a series of site-specific artworks for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. The project, initiated by CW+ – the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – and facilitated by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, which represents Burgess internationally, aims to improve and enhance the NICU environment for patients, relatives and staff.

Working together with the NICU team, Burgess was reminiscing on the hospital’s neighbourhoods and its iconic views, sights and buildings in collaboration with hospital staff. Known for his unique, abstract and colourful style, Andy has transformed selected London scenes into incredible artworks to create a warm and welcoming environment for both parents and staff to enjoy. The display, installed on the 16th June 2022, includes a panorama of London, an image of Albert Bridge and another of a London Underground station. Additionally, Andy produced two smaller scale abstract pieces developed from the colour palettes of his larger works, which were gifted as part of the commission. CW+ also acquired two existing works by Andy for the unit through Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Burgess’s collectors include the Booker prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, actor and writer Emma Thompson, the Tisch family in New York, Beth De Woody, Board Member of The Whitney Museum and Richard and Ellen Sandor in Chicago, who have one of the top 100 art collections in America.

In March 2023, Burgess published of a new limited edition book of abstract ink on paper collages called Tiger’s Eye in conjunction with an exhibition at Laughlin Mercantile in Tucson, Arizona and the release of four luxurious silk scarf designs based on the collages.

Andy Burgess has been represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2004.

MATT SMITH
b. 1971, Cambridgeshire, UK

Matt Smith is a multi award-winning artist based in Ireland and England. He is well known for his site-specific work in museums, galleries and historic houses. Using clay, textiles and their associated references, he explores how cultural organisations operate using techniques of institutional critique and artist intervention. Smith is interested in how history is a constantly selected and refined narrative that presents itself as a fixed and accurate account of the past and how, through taking objects and repurposing them in new situations, this can be brought to light. Of particular interest to him is how museums can be reframed into alternative perspectives.

Matt J Smith is best known for his work with museums and collections. He recontextualises museum collections to consider overlooked or erased narratives, often incorporating LGBTQ+ histories and legacies of colonisation. Solo exhibitions include Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Flux: Parian Unpacked at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge (UK), Who Owns History at Hove Museum and Queering he Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Art Gallery (UK) and the Victoria and Albert Museum London (UK). Notable group shows have included Dublin Castle (Ireland), Gustavsberg Konsthall, Stockholm (Sweden) the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (Ireland) and the Foundling Museum (UK). In 2015/16 he was artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and in 2024/25 Artist in Residence at Holocaust Centre North. He holds a PhD from the University of Brighton, was Professor at Konstfack University, Stockholm and currently teaches at the Royal College of Art.

In 2020 he was awarded the Brookfield Prize 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.

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

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’s collaborative work with her father, renowned ceramicist Chris Bramble, explores intergenerational creativity, identity, and heritage through clay. One of their joint pieces was recently acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, marking a significant milestone in both their practices and celebrating the power of family legacy in contemporary ceramics.

Freya Bramble-Carter is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.


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).

Press:
Ebony Russell Announced as the Winner of Brookfield Properties Craft Award 2025
Ceramic Review Feature: "Piped Dreams"
Artsy’s "5 Artists on Our Radar" – March 2025
Art Mama feature
More Press Highlights

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.

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.

CLAUDETTE FORBES

b. 1963, UK

Claudette Forbes is an award winning ceramicist. Her work is deeply rooted in her experiences as the child of Jamaican parents growing up in inner-city Bristol. As a teenager the race riots in her neighbourhood in 1980 made a lasting impression on her. Her curiosity about the government's attempts to fix things led to her pursuing her first career tackling inner city deprivation. These experiences now inspire her art. She often gathers her ideas by observing scenes in her adopted neighbourhood of Peckham, London. She seeks to test interpretations of the present day whilst producing tangible objects that contain a certain beauty and references the past.

She adorns her work with her illustrations which are a contemporary twist on the traditional blue and white willow pattern. She describes her work as provocative and humorous.

Her ‘Poor Cow’ collection, featuring fashion & fast food branded cows and illustrated milk bottles, was inspired by a family trip to Jamaica. Montego Bay’s first McDonald’s restaurant had just opened. Next to it was a field with a solitary cow in it, a scene which she found hilarious. The collection has won many plaudits. The ’Banksy Thieves, Rye Lane, Peckham, London’ is the latest addition to her 'Poor Cow' collection. Forbes has been selected as Showcase Award winner for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, won 2nd place prize at Brixton Art Prize, and Selected for New Ashgate Gallery Rising Stars.

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

AMY HUGHES

b. 1985, Dewsbury, UK.

“Amy Jayne Hughes reinterprets historical vase designs while nodding at the original aesthetic yet leaving space for the clay.

“Hughes’ vases resemble pixelated images of historic vases; they are sketched from the old but resemble nothing of the past - they occupy a place entirely of their own. Hughes’ blind contour drawing technique captures the object's essence while acknowledging the clay material and her role in the reinterpretation: Fingerprints left in the clay and drawn upon cardboard-like pieces stuck to the vase trace Hughes’ artistic process. The play is consciously left visible.

“Hughes’ work is both a celebration of our ceramic past and reclaiming space for clay.” - Jesper Nøddeskov, Homo Faber Guide.

Amy Jayne Hughes is a Ceramicist, a clay purist and enthusiast. She adores working with her medium and the possibilities that it allows. Primarily a hand builder in her practice, Hughes enjoys combining traditional making techniques and exploring form and decoration and establishing dialogues between the two. Working with an awareness of clay, she feels it is important to leave traces of material identity on a piece to celebrate the uniqueness of it and the wonderfully idiosyncratic ways in which it behaves, highlighting and drawing attention to rather than covering over. This allows for brushstrokes and dribbles of slip, raw cut and torn edges, exposed joints and considered application of glaze.

Taking inspiration from historically significant ceramic objects and collections, Hughes strives to reference the originals whilst reinterpreting and reinventing, to make them more accessible and breathe a fresh life into them. Working with a cultural awareness, Hughes seeks to take such pieces to new audiences and find a place in contemporary culture for them. Sources for her recent ceramic explorations include Grecian, Islamic and 18th century French Porcelain.

Hughes loves to draw and her collections often involve exploring different methods of interpreting her drawings into clay. Most recently, taking a collage-like approach, Hughes uses enlarged elements of her sketches, tracing them directly onto her clay surfaces in decorating slip and attaching them onto her coil and slab-built forms, creating exciting patterns and shapes and working with a colourful and lively painterly approach. The making process informs the composition, not knowing how the final piece may look.

Amy Jayne Hughes studied MA Ceramics & Glass at Royal College of Art, London, 2008-2010 and BA Ceramics at Loughborough University, 2004-2007. She also won the City and Guilds Life Drawing Award.

Notable solo exhibitions include: ‘Garniture’ Croome Court, Worcester, Arts Council England funded (2018), and ‘Vase & Cover’ Room 141, V&A Museum, London Design Festival (2018). Hughes’ notable group exhibitions include: Art Miami, Cynthia Corbett Gallery (2022-23), COLLECT, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Somerset House (2021-23), British Art Fair, Cynthia Corbett Gallery (2022-23), London Art Fair, Cynthia Corbett Gallery (2022), ‘Piranesi 300: A Visionary Revisited’ Dublin Castle & the Casino at Marino, Dublin (2022), ‘Leach 100’ The Leach Pottery, St Ives (2022), ‘Artefact’, Vessel Gallery (2021), ‘Out Of the Blue’ 50 Years of Designers Guild, The Fashion and Textile Museum, London (2020), COLLECT, Vessel Gallery (2019), ‘Renewed Past’ CODA Museum, Netherlands (2016), ‘AWARD’, British Ceramics Biennial (2015), and 'SWEET 18’, Castle of Hingene, Belgium (2015).

Hughes has been nominated for many prestigious awards and prizes. She was a shortlisted Artist for the Brookfield Properties Craft Award (2023); nominated for the Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize by Barney Hare Duke (2016); shortlisted for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize, (2014); shortlisted for the Constance Fairness Foundation Award, December (2011); awarded the Anglo-Swedish Scholarship Bursary (2010); and selected to represent the UK in ‘New Talent’ at the European Ceramic Context, Denmark (2014). Hughes was also winner of Best Community Public Art 2013 project with Pump House Gallery for ‘Imaginariums’

Hughes has undertaken residencies in the UK and Internationally including: V&A Ceramics & Industry Artist in Residence in collaboration with 1882Ltd (April – September 2015); Siobhan Davies Dance Studio with Manifold Studio, (July – September 2013); Anglo-Swedish Scholarship Exchange, Konstfack School, Stockholm (January – April 2011)

Hughes’ work has been featured in Ceramic Review, ‘A Modern Decadence’, CR 309, Annie La Santo (2021); ‘Encore! The New Artisans’, Olivier Dupon, Thames & Hudson, (2015); ‘Collectives: The Model for Success’, Edith Garcia, Ceramics Monthly, (2020); ‘Studio Ceramics’, Alun Graves (2023); ‘Getting to know Amy Hughes’, India Miller, FAIRE Magazine (2023). Hughes was recently included in the Homo Faber Guide of Artisans and Master Craftsmen, curated by The Michelangelo Foundation (2023).

Hughes’ work has been acquired internationally. Collections include: Hendelsbanken, Sweden (2011), ‘Tryst’, V&A permanent collection (2016), and Private Collections in USA, UK, France, Sweden, and Netherlands.

Amy Hughes was a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2014 and is internationally represented by the Cythia Corbett Gallery. She was highly commended for the Brookfield Properties Craft Award 2023.

CRISTINA SCHEK

b. Transylvania

Cristina Schek is the photosensitive kind. She thinks in pictures; her imagination is always in focus. A Transylvanian Surrealist now rooted in London, Schek crafts conceptual work that explores identity and the nature of representation, with literature, films, and art history as her muses. Her true passion lies in storytelling—venturing into the unknown, layering, and crafting images into creative compositions.

Esteemed art critic Estelle Lovatt, FRSA, notes the departure from traditional representations in Cristina's work: “Away from the worn-out out-of-date academic portrait of the female muse, Cristina Schek’s attention-grabbing images are inspired by literature and history. I marvel at her unique quirky portraits of modern life, in interiors brimming with warm comfy chintz and cosy furniture. But the real clout and muscle comes from the lone woman masked, in her flowing gown, inspiring powerful messages of caution for women today. Different to a man’s representation of the female, Schek inspires us to be the victor not the victim. As a woman, though the lens of her eye, she created a new, unique, visual language influencing and motivating us to be as progressive and visionary as we are. To be assertive, bold, self-assured powerful, and confident. To develop and enlarge our value(s). To think, feminist weight solid enough, in images not just of her, but of you and me, in Schek’s sumptuous, surrealistic, delightful imaginings.”

‘Diving Upwards’ Series – Glamour Edit, 2025

Glamarine (2025) revisits Schek's earlier divers, but here the figures rise from the sea in a weightless ascent. These glamorous swimmers lift toward the light, suspended between water and sky, pausing for a breath of air; a moment that celebrates beauty and the pure joy of being. "Everything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the Universe. Imagination is 'Diving Upwards'! And you can get better at it. It's the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems that arise, you just have to 'Dive Upwards' and imagine how much your ability to solve problems improves." Cristina Schek

Schek's portfolio is celebrated internationally and her notable achievements include Young Masters Focus On The Female Art Created During Lockdown Award 2021 for her work 'Florence Lightingale', receiving recognition at Phillips Auction House with the BFAMI Art Exhibition 2022 and winning the W4 Fourth Plinth with 'The Ceiling In The Sky' monumental 4x4m public art installation in 2023. This prestigious recognition follows in the footsteps of Sir Peter Blake, whose artwork was the inaugural work on display.

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