Emily Gibbard
Born in Norwich, 1982
Lives and works in Bristol, UK

Emily's ceramic practice transforms vessels thrown on the potter's wheel into biomorphic sculptural forms that explore body perception, identity and sexuality. While rooted in the traditions of the pottery craft, Emily plays and experiments with thrown forms to create abstract body representation. Inspiration comes from her work in female empowerment, studies into prehistoric sculpture and her personal journey of body discovery.

Emily is a Collect Open 2024 exhibitor and recipient of Arts Council DYCP funding. She is Founder and Director of Windmill Clay artist-led ceramics studio which provides workspaces, mentoring and classes.

Galleries

Alveston Fine Arts, Notting Hill, London

Thrown Contemporary Gallery London
New Brewery Arts Cirencester

Exhibitions

2024

Potfest Glynde Place 10-12 May, Potfest SW 12-14 July

Bristol Botanic Gardens Easter Sculpture Festival

COLLECT OPEN 2024 Somerset House London

CLAY IS MY CANVAS curated by Nick Duxbury, New Brewery Arts Cirencester

2023

CELEBRATING CERAMICS Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire

FRINGE ARTS BATH Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - allegorical sculpture by 3 artists

MY BODY IN MY HANDS SVA Gallery Stroud

Bristol Botanic Gardens Easter Sculpture Festival

DRAWN TOGETHER Serchia Gallery Bristol

2022

THROWN CONTEMPORARY LONDON, Winter Exhibition 22/23

CELEBRATING CERAMICS Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire

"

These are hyperbolically female shapes, upright, acrobatic, and curvy. They are playful and provocative, touching lightly on the long tradition of artistic stunts. They have a compulsiveness perhaps linked to Emily Gibbard’s biography, and to the persona she has constructed. We see a small woman paying homage to that continuum that reaches back to the proto-feminism of Nikki de St Phalle.

Gibbard’s monumental figuration-with-attitude is achieved through the assemblage of thin-walled wheel-thrown vessels (emphatically conventional) to which soft violence is applied while wet and giving. To this naked figure Emily applies sizzling, flat colour, as if to the skin. Her brushstrokes are made with her hand, arm, shoulder, and her whole body. The result is playful, but not playful.

Dr Andre Hess