Ken Eastman
Encyclopedia
Ken Eastman is a British ceramic artist, best known for his austere, flat bottomed, slab built ceramic
vessels. He exhibits internationally and has won various awards in the field of ceramic arts
, including the ‘Premio Faenza’, Italy in 1995, the ‘Gold Medal’ at the World Ceramic Exposition 2001 Korea and the ‘President De la Generalitat Valencia’at the 5th Biennale International De Ceramica, Manises, Spain. In 1998 he was awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Ceramics.
He was elected as a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in 2003.
Alongside his studio work, Eastman also works as an Academic Researcher within the Design School of the Glasgow School of Art. He is represented in the UK by the Marsden-Woo Gallery, London.
from 1979 to 1983 and at the Royal College of Art
, in London, from 1984 to 1987.
, an artist whose work he greatly admired at the time. For many years his making has centered around a slab building technique using painted ceramic colours and oxides.
Craftscotland, a charity which supports Scottish crafts, describes his current work as centring on the idea of the vessel, pointing out that he has never made functional work, but uses the vessel as a subject - "to give meaning and form to an expression". David Whiting, on the other hand, states "Eastman is not so easy to classify. One tires of that lazy and over-used term “abstract vessel” when describing his work, because it is glib and reductive ....... Clearly, Ken Eastman is a maker of sculpture that evolves and works on its own terms, but is also a more concentrated – for now – response to the shape of things, to the world seen and felt".
Eastman has said of his own work "Part of the reason for making (in fact a very large part of the reason) is to see things that I have never seen before - to build something that I can not fully understand or explain."
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
vessels. He exhibits internationally and has won various awards in the field of ceramic arts
Ceramic art
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
, including the ‘Premio Faenza’, Italy in 1995, the ‘Gold Medal’ at the World Ceramic Exposition 2001 Korea and the ‘President De la Generalitat Valencia’at the 5th Biennale International De Ceramica, Manises, Spain. In 1998 he was awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Ceramics.
He was elected as a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in 2003.
Alongside his studio work, Eastman also works as an Academic Researcher within the Design School of the Glasgow School of Art. He is represented in the UK by the Marsden-Woo Gallery, London.
Education
Eastman studied Ceramics at Edinburgh College of ArtEdinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art is an art school in Edinburgh, Scotland, providing tertiary education in art and design disciplines for over two thousand students....
from 1979 to 1983 and at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
, in London, from 1984 to 1987.
Artistic style
While in Edinburgh, Eastman worked mainly in Raku. After arriving at the Royal College of Art in London he experimented in various ways of working with ceramic form, including sculpture, before confining himself to painting on rectangle ceramic platter shapes in a style very much in the spirit of Gillian AyresGillian Ayres
Gillian Ayres, CBE is an English painter.-Early life and career:Ayres was born on 3 February 1930 in Barnes, London, the youngest of three sisters. Ayres started school when she was six. Her parents, a prosperous couple, sent her to Ibstock, a progressive school in Roehampton run on Fröbel...
, an artist whose work he greatly admired at the time. For many years his making has centered around a slab building technique using painted ceramic colours and oxides.
Craftscotland, a charity which supports Scottish crafts, describes his current work as centring on the idea of the vessel, pointing out that he has never made functional work, but uses the vessel as a subject - "to give meaning and form to an expression". David Whiting, on the other hand, states "Eastman is not so easy to classify. One tires of that lazy and over-used term “abstract vessel” when describing his work, because it is glib and reductive ....... Clearly, Ken Eastman is a maker of sculpture that evolves and works on its own terms, but is also a more concentrated – for now – response to the shape of things, to the world seen and felt".
Eastman has said of his own work "Part of the reason for making (in fact a very large part of the reason) is to see things that I have never seen before - to build something that I can not fully understand or explain."
Selected public collections
- Victoria & Albert Museum UK
- Crafts CouncilCrafts CouncilThe Crafts Council was established in the United Kingdom in 1971 as the national agency for crafts and was granted a Royal Charter in 1982. The Crafts Council’s vision is to position the UK as the global centre for the making, seeing and collecting of contemporary craft...
UK - Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK
- The Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonThe Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonThe Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , located in Houston, is one of the largest museums in the United States. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 6,000 years of history with more than 62,000 works from six continents....
, USA