Martin Pearce has always been interested in ceramics and threw his first pot at age ten. His father was a primary school teacher who would use the classroom for teaching skills with pottery. And so pottery always played in the background of Martin’s life while he went on to study and practice interior design in the early 90s. During this time, he began to collect contemporary ceramics from fairs and galleries in the UK and Netherlands. Fascinated by the aesthetic and technical aspects, he began experimenting on his own. After losing his archives in a devasting fire, Martin allowed his curiosity in ceramics to take over and transform into a full-time obsession.
As an interior designer, Martin would have everything clear in his head and then draw it out. Finding the opposite is true with his ceramics; he draws by the natural process of making with less emphasis on the cerebral. His biomorphic and weighty forms enclose space and volume to a consistent dramatic effect, conveying a quiet sense of depth and ease, a sense of the ancient and mysterious. These substantial forms are hand-built rather than thrown, using coils, strips, slips and glazes, and their bold presence exudes a definite power, like long-lost chunks of some ancient monolith.
From his studio in St. Leonards-on-sea, East Sussex, England, he has two favorite parts in the making process. The first is the point when the character of a piece breaks through, when a shape is being refined or when something unforeseen emerges. The second is during the creation of a surface when deliberate mark-making is replaced with intuitive action. At both stages, a different part of his brain is tapped to create something on an intuitive level, that had not existed before.
Roman and Williams Guild is proud to champion Martin Pearce’s evocative and emotional work which has been highly regarded in the strong scene of UK ceramicists and has found a home amongst the global community of artists Roman and Williams Guild supports and represents.
