Kate Malone: Hooray for Clay

About

Kate Malone's ceramic works are distinctive, decorative and highly complex, reflecting her generosity of spirit. Her work emanates from her love and observations of the natural world and fruits, vegetables, leaves, seeds, nuts and all manner of natural phenomena appear in her exuberant pieces. For this exhibition Malone has chosen to show pairs of ceramics from some of the themes that recur time and again in her repertoire: Pumpkins, Fennels, Gourds and Atomics are represented — her interest in the atom is expressed in her work by the pot being the nucleus around which electrons orbit. At the outset of her career, Malone thought that she would make beautiful yet practical ceramics, tableware for people to enjoy, but because of her robust way of working with clay she found that her pieces could not compete with the good design of mass-produced items such as those found in Ikea or the Conran shop. Instead she found her vocation in creating vases of the most exotic kind, redolent of Art Nouveau, Victorian Majolica and Minton for example. Her work ranges from studio pieces to large-scale public art works often made in collaboration with architects and designers. She is represented by Adrian Sassoon whose dealership represents many artists who are held in the highest regard.