Artist statement
I saw a building I knew, but only the facade remained: a thin slice. I asked myself: if you can remove the volume from a building, could I do the same with clay? Could I work with a light, thin slice of clay? A page of clay?
I roll porcelain thinly by hand, to create a strong, yet fragile looking, minimal form. I draw upon the language of the paper page: its repeatable dimensions, thinness, borders, gridded layout and its ability to convey stories, but apply ceramic techniques to build layers of material and meaning.
My work is rooted in walking and wayfaring and the sense of freedom I gain from putting one foot in front of the other. I am interested in abstracting information from the landscape and environment around me and, through bold use of colour and repetition with variation, making something new from it. The resulting, often abstract, language is an expression of how I see and experience the world.
The pages of porcelain that I construct are archetypally repetitious, and subversively minimal in form, to convey both a sense of the ordinary and the everyday and a feeling of lightness and agility within a sometimes-weighty world.
Artist Biography
Alison Rees (b. 1970) studied Archaeology at Nottingham University before completing a Ceramics MA in 2014, and PhD in 2023, at the Royal College of Art.
Alison combines the materiality of clay with the language of the paper page, to tell an abstract story of self and place. She actively and materially engages with the landscape around her to create surface compositions which reflect the visual environment experienced and observed. Her multi-layered work achieves as much as possible with as little as possible, exploring themes such as repetition and variation; perfection and imperfection; temporality and flexibility; lightness and minimality; grids and edges; borders and framing; and colour and spatial organisation.
In 2025 Alison was selected as an Award artist for the 2025 British Ceramics Biennial. In 2024 she was selected to exhibit in Collect Open (Collect Art Fair) by the Crafts Council; she was chosen by World of Interiors to mark twenty years of Collect; she was selected to exhibit in 50/50 by Unit 1 Gallery/Workshop; she was shortlisted for the Charlotte Fraser Ceramics Prize at the Holt Festival; and she exhibited three works at the Mall Galleries ING Discerning Eye. In 2015, she won the Design History Society’s essay prize for her research into the life cycle of London’s post-war ceramic murals.
Artist CV
Education
2023 PhD Ceramics, Royal College of Art
Thesis – Turning the Page: a New Dimension to the Language of Ceramics with Reference to Wayfaring, Porcelain Paperclay and the Archetype of the Paper Page
2014 MA Ceramics, Royal College of Art
Dissertation (Distinction) – Physical Reminders: Tracing a Ceramic Mural’s Presence and Absence in Post-war London
2011 Diploma Ceramics (Distinction), City Lit
2004 Art Foundation, Wimbledon School of Art
1992 BA Archaeology, University of Nottingham
Prizes and awards
2024 Shortlisted for the Charlotte Fraser Ceramics Prize, Holt Festival, Holt, Norfolk
2024 Selected by Gianluca Longo, for World of Interiors, as one of twenty artists in celebration twenty years of Collect, Somerset House, London
2022 Selected by Travers Smith to exhibit work in their offices for a year as part of their Art Programme
2015 Winner, Design History Society’s Postgraduate Essay Prize: Physical Reminders: Tracing a Ceramic Mural’s Presence and Absence in Post-war London
Upcoming exhibitions
2026 Distance and Proximity: Pages of Porcelain, Art at Home, Twickenham (solo show at Kath Wood MBE’s gallery/home)
Selected exhibitions
2025 Award Artist, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent more information here
2024 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
2024 Holt Festival, Holt, Norfolk
2024 50/50, Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London
2024 Collect Open 2024, Somerset House, London
2023 Travers Smith Art Programme 2022-23, 10 Snow Hill, London – online catalogue
2023 Undertow, Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London
2022 Travers Smith Art Programme 2022-23, 10 Snow Hill, London – online catalogue
2022 The Futurists, Mint, 3-5 Duke Street, London
2022 RCA 2022, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2022 Unruly Encounters, Lake Gallery Southwark Park, London
2019 Undertow, 171 Morning Lane, London and online at Undertow Research
2019 There is Something Lurking in the Shadows That Might be Interesting, Royal College of Art, London
2018 Flight Mode, Assembly Point, London
2018 Materialise, 7 Wetherby Gardens, London
2018 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2017 The Emerging and the Established, Christies, London
2017 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2014 Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London
2014 Ceramic Art London, RCA Student Show, London
2014 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2013 Anima, Asylum, London
2013 Ceramic Art London, RCA Student Show, London
2013 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London
2012 New Designers: One Year On, Business Design Centre, London
2012 Open studios, Vanguard Court, London
2011 New Designers, Business Design Centre, London
2011 Open studios, Vanguard Court, London
2011 Diploma Graduation Show, The City Lit Institute, London