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Image 1 of 1
Glazed ceramic, oxides, underglaze, glass
25 x 32 x 32 cm
2024
Katie Smith is a ceramic artist based in South London whose practice centres on the creation of hand-built vessel forms. Using a research-through-practice approach, she creates organic, sculptural ceramics that investigate materiality, tactility, and the relationship between process and form. Inspired by folk crafts, ancient ceramics, maximalist aesthetics, and natural structures, her work exists between functional object and sculpture.
Smith uses the vessel as an indirect representation of the body, drawing parallels between ceramic forms and experiences of femininity within a patriarchal society. Her rounded, bodily forms challenge ideals of perfection often imposed upon women, exploring vulnerability, sensitivity, and the physical and emotional traces carried within the body over time.
Working intuitively, Smith allows the clay to guide aspects of the making process through slumping, warping, and deformation. Visible coils, folds, dimples, and finger marks remain embedded within her surfaces, preserving evidence of touch and emphasising the physical dialogue between maker and material. Gestural markings, derived from her paintings, reference bodily movement, textures found in nature, and perceived ‘imperfections’ such as stretch marks, folds, and scarring.
Through tactile surfaces and precarious forms, Smith explores how materials can hold memory, movement, and human experience. Her vessels balance fragility with structural permanence, creating forms that feel simultaneously vulnerable, bodily, and enduring.
Glazed ceramic, oxides, underglaze, glass
25 x 32 x 32 cm
2024
Katie Smith is a ceramic artist based in South London whose practice centres on the creation of hand-built vessel forms. Using a research-through-practice approach, she creates organic, sculptural ceramics that investigate materiality, tactility, and the relationship between process and form. Inspired by folk crafts, ancient ceramics, maximalist aesthetics, and natural structures, her work exists between functional object and sculpture.
Smith uses the vessel as an indirect representation of the body, drawing parallels between ceramic forms and experiences of femininity within a patriarchal society. Her rounded, bodily forms challenge ideals of perfection often imposed upon women, exploring vulnerability, sensitivity, and the physical and emotional traces carried within the body over time.
Working intuitively, Smith allows the clay to guide aspects of the making process through slumping, warping, and deformation. Visible coils, folds, dimples, and finger marks remain embedded within her surfaces, preserving evidence of touch and emphasising the physical dialogue between maker and material. Gestural markings, derived from her paintings, reference bodily movement, textures found in nature, and perceived ‘imperfections’ such as stretch marks, folds, and scarring.
Through tactile surfaces and precarious forms, Smith explores how materials can hold memory, movement, and human experience. Her vessels balance fragility with structural permanence, creating forms that feel simultaneously vulnerable, bodily, and enduring.