Alison Britton: Plattering

2 Mar-22 Apr 2023

Overview

Tommaso Corvi-Mora is thrilled to present a solo exhibition of new work by Alison Britton, her second at the gallery. The show is devoted to a shape that has become central to Alison Britton’s practice: the plate. Plates offer the possibilities of a picture plane while still preserving the potential of function. They can be displayed both horizontally, on a tabletop, and vertically, on a wall. Both painting and sculpture, they exemplify the complexity of Alison Britton’s work, that itself straddles between painting and sculpture, between art and craft. This will be her first exhibition devoted exclusively to this form.

Alison Britton is one of the most important and influential ceramic artists working in Britain today. She graduated at the Royal College of Art in London in the mid-seventies and belonged to a group of artists who were identified as “The New Ceramics” movement: their radical work challenged and deconstructed traditional notions of ceramics and in particular of functional pottery, questioning the Bernard Leach “standard” in favour of a more complex and nuanced approach to the medium. Alison Britton’s practice has since then remained focussed on the vessel, exploring its features both formal and conceptual. She has taught at the RCA for many decades and has a distinguished career as both a critic and theorist. “Seeing Things”, a collection of her writing on art, craft and design, was published by Occasional Papers in a second edition in 2022. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and abroad.

Artists