Anna Silverton: Porcelain

We are delighted to present a solo exhibition by Anna Silverton, in a new body of works especially produced for the gallery in Ramsgate.

Anna Silverton is an established ceramic artist, well known for her finely wheel-thrown porcelain. She has exhibited widely in the UK and has had public/architectural commissions around the world.  Her work combines a minimalist approach with rich and sensuous glazes. 

Anna graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Ceramics and Glass in 1987.  She subsequently lived and worked in New York USA, where she taught and had a studio at Syracuse university. She returned to the UK and set up her studio in London in 1993, with the help of a Crafts Council Grant. In March 2022 she moved to Ramsgate in Kent, where she has her new workshop and home.

A personal statement:

My vases and bowls refer to subliminal past and future; history and potential are brought together through common processes.

I relish stretching and constraining soft porcelain as I work on the potter's wheel, my primary focus on silhouette. I find dynamism in exaggerated flared rims and swooping profiles, my vases and bowls challenge gravity visually and technically. I revel in the exhilarating risk of making demanding forms which show off porcelain's strength and simultaneous fragility. Due to Porcelain's unique and challenging properties there is a balancing act when working, between control and risk. I juxtapose intuitive playfulness and planned precision.

Each piece is unique but there is cadence and harmony when they are placed together. In groups, or garnitures, the spaces between become significant, a duality of focus between negative and positive.

Alongside the capacities and limits of porcelain I explore the alchemical material potential of glaze. In preparation I turn the surface of each piece on the wheel, with sharp tools and diamond pads, to ensure unblemished smoothness in readiness for glaze application. Colourful and layered glazes are carefully applied in response to shape, I am constantly testing and expanding possibilities. Glazed surfaces are punctuated with meticulous details at the rim and base, revealing and highlighting the purity of the material.