Gareth Mason
Each of Gareth Mason’s ceramic jars represents a small cosmic explosion. Intensely expressive and energetic in character, Mason’s work reflects his eagerness to capture the dynamics and the mysteries of creation. Based on the transformative power of fire, so Mason, spirit is freed from earth – his artistic medium – and in turn ceramics come to life. Indeed, the ceramic jars undergo a metamorphic process when, guided by intuition and improvisation, Mason first throws them by hand and subsequently manipulates them by multiple firing, glazing, and the inclusion of varied materials over a period of up to several years. The result in each case is an astounding richness in texture, form, and visual density. Unconventional in his approach, Gareth Mason is one of Britain’s most individual ceramicists. He has extensive experience as a teacher of, and has been published in many books and articles about ceramics. His work is widely collected in the UK as well as internationally.
Gareth Mason is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association and Brother of the Art Workers Guild, London. He exhibits regularly in solo and group exhibitions in the UK and abroad. A short film about his practice entitled ‘White’ won Grand Prix at the Projections D’Argile film festival, Montpellier, 2002. In September 2006 he participated in the International Keramik Symposium, Gmunden and accompanying European touring exhibition. A major solo exhibition entitled ‘An Unfolding Narrative’ took place in 2007 at Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House. He is a member of the International Association for Ceramic Art Education and Exchange and contributed to their conferences in Farnham (England), Nairobi (Kenya) and Icheon (Korea). He exhibited at the World Ceramic Biennale, Yeoju, Korea 2009. Recent talks and demonstrations include invited speaker at the CAAI International Ceramics Conference, Tel Hai, Israel, December 2008 and Invited speaker at Ege University Art Days symposium, Izmir, Turkey, December 2009.
