Meet the artist: Amanda Popham
As we open a solo exhibition featuring new works by Amanda Popham we take a closer look at this prolific and popular artist's career...
Amanda Popham studied at a thrilling time for those working in the field of ceramics and studio pottery. Old rules were being broken and a drive for experimentation at every level gave Amanda and her contemporaries a buzz for pushing boundaries, letting their imaginations drive the work.
At the Royal College of Art in London, Amanda came into contact with a wealth of inspirational artists that increased the sense of what could be achieved. Eduardo Paolozzi was on the teaching staff alongside Jacqui Poncelet, Alison Britton and Glenys Barton, all were pioneers of the new spirit in ceramics and had recently graduated from the RCA themselves.
Instantly recognisable, Amanda's bottles and vessels are the product of a lifetime’s devotion to drawing as a means of expressing an idea or emotion and to the tradition of ceramics itself.
Her unique, imaginative, hand-built earthenware figures and installations exude a natural spontaneity and are executed to the highest standard. Her work is beautifully decorated and many are inscribed with sayings from literature and the Bible.
"The great pleasure of making things is that there is always another thing to make."
Her reputation was established when her work was selected by Liberty (who she supplied for 20 years) and from the earliest years of her art career she quickly attracted an ever-widening circle of collectors for her idiosyncratic and fantastic pieces.
Today, her reputation continues to grow as does her imagination and ability to surprise and delight with her mastery of her art whilst conveying emotion and sensibilities through her individual and enigmatic work.
New works by Amanda Popham created exclusively for Rostra Gallery will be on show from 27th July 2018