Leach 101

About

The renaissance of ceramics in recent years has been well documented: an uprising, resurgence, a rebel movement of the handmade. However while ceramics is becoming more familiar to the public eye, an upcoming exhibition as part of London Craft Week celebrates the legacy that led the way there.

‘Leach 101’, a pop-up exhibition by contemporary ceramics gallery Thrown, celebrates the landmark 100 year anniversary of the Leach Pottery, St Ives. Founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, the Leach Pottery is among the most respected and influential potteries in the world. Set up from Japanese teachings and promoting pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies, the Pottery bought with it new ideas and ways of thinking about this ancient art form.

The exhibition ‘Leach 101’ presents the Leach Pottery of today: 100 (+1) years since it was founded, with 100 years of influence and development, landing straight into today’s craft boom. Individual works by the current Leach Studio team, lead by lead potter Roelof Uys, will demonstrate who the potters are who carry on this legacy and crucially their own takings, interpretations and perhaps even rebellions from its philosophies and teachings. These individual statements will sit beside the current collection of the iconic Leach Standard Ware, tableware created collaboratively by the Leach studio team, first created in 1937 and sparked from Bernard Leach’s thoughts on ‘a classic standard of pottery’ – functional, affordable and created by working as a group.

The exhibition, accompanied by a series of events, talks & collaborative supper clubs – unique dinners by the chefs of restaurant Gilvic putting the Leach Standard Ware truly in the spotlight – will aim to present and demonstrate the Leach’s important place in contemporary ceramics today. And with ceramics being the most featured discipline in the London Craft Week programme, the stage is truly set.