ABOUT
I am drawn to clay’s unique ability to preserve the act of making, as both conscious and unconscious moments of touch are held in the surface of the ceramic object.
My practice displays a strong relationship between surface and form, informed by my BA in painting and printmaking and MA in Ceramics. I refer to historic ceramic artefacts, social and painting theory, as I explore ideas surrounding the mark of the maker, temporality, trace and place.
Careful and subtle interventions, made at strategic points during the mutable state of the clay, are what bring my works into being. By visually scanning the surface of an evolving work, I read the unconscious impressions it may have picked up, these directly inform the conscious actions I impose on the clay. Throughout the making of a work there is a continual shift between layering and erasing; a conversation with the material. I sense the conclusion of a work when I reach a place of wanting to hold onto what is left - a sense of something pre-existing revealing itself.
Bio
Ella Porter is a London and Norfolk Based Artist with a multidisciplinary practice, which explores interchangeable material languages and processes between ceramics and Print.
Ella Grew up in London and completed her Foundation Diploma, specialising in Drawing, at Camberwell College of Art, in 2011. She then went on to study for a BA degree in Painting and Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2014. Following her BA and the GSA fire of 2014, she was awarded a Phoenix Bursary and received the NL Culture prize, for which she produced a solo exhibition. Ella went on to set up a studio in London and began working with clay which led to her Diploma in Ceramics at the CityLit, 2017. In 2021 she completed her MA at The Royal College of Art, which was supported by The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust. Ella’s work has been exhibited with independent galleries as well as the Ingram Prize, for which she was a 2021 finalist as well as other public and private collections.
Exhibitions
2024 Ceramic Art London - CAL | Kensington Olympia (London) April 2024
2024 Unfurl - Contemporary and Country | Stapleford Granary (Cambridge) April 2024
2023 Hubbub - RCA Alumni Show | Bermondsey Project Space (London) 12 - 16 December 2023
2023 East to East - Contemporary and Country | Houghton Hall Stables (North Norfolk) - April 2023 - Oct 2023
2022 Artefact - Maker Trail | Design Centre Chelsea Harbour (London) - May 2022
2021 MA Ceramics & Glass | Royal College of Art | Cromwell Place (London) - December 2021
2021 The Ingram Prize | Unit 1 Gallery Workshop (London) - November 2021
2021 Cabinet of Curiosities | The Power of Material: From Virtual to Physical | The Design Museum (London)
2021 Sketch | Hosted by Preston Fitzgerald (London)
2021 Royal College of Art Online Show
2020 Winter Exhibition Online | Thrown Contemporary
2019 WIP show | Royal College of Art (London)
2019 Glasgow Drawing Club | Chelsea College of Art (London)
2019 The Pottery House (Norfolk)
2017 Ceramics Diploma Show | Candid Arts Trust (London)
2016 Pause II Play | Bargain Studio (St. Leonards-by-Sea)
2015 GSA Graduate Degree Show | Phoenix Bursary (Glasgow)
2015 Shades of Yellow | Embassy Tea Gallery (London)
2014 Feeling is Seeing/Seeing is Feeling | Culture NL (Glasgow)
2014 Plinth | This is The Plinth (Glasgow)
2014 GSA Fine Art BA Degree Show | Showcase (Glasgow)
Awards
2020 Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust | 2020 QEST PF Charitable Trust Scholar | Ceramics
2020 The Worshipful Company of Tinplate Workers alias Wire workers | Tin Project | Runner up prize winner for the most imaginative and innovative use of tin plate
2015 Culture NL | funded Exhibition
2014 Phoenix Bursary Award
Education
2019-2021 Royal College of Art | Ceramics & Glass | Masters in Arts and Humanities
2018 Citylit | Jewellery III | short course
2015-2017 Citylit | Diploma of Ceramics
2014 Chelsea College of Art | Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice | short course
2011-2014 Glasgow School of Art | Bachelor (Honours) of Art in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking
2010-2011 Camberwell College of Arts | Foundation Diploma in Art and Design | Drawing Specialism
Talks
The Kiln Rooms - Artist Talk - April 2024
Publications + Press
2023 Emerging Potters Magazine # 31
2021 The Ingram Prize shortlist
2021 Emerging Potters Magazine # 24
2015 The Skinny Magazine #