Exhibition of Functional Pots by Mike Dodd

Beginning their 2014 exhibition schedule, Leach Pottery St Ives present and exhibition of work by British potter Mike Dodd showing from the 15th February to the 30th March 2014. A largely self-taught artist whose work has received widespread critical acclaim, Dodd studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and a one year ceramics course at Hammersmith College of Art before setting up his first studio in Sussex in 1968.

In 1975, along with friend and potter Peter Schofield, he founded the Cider House Pottery at West Cornwall’s Godolphin estate, where they built a small wood-fired climbing kiln, and later constructed and worked with a traditional Thai kiln. Dodd remained in Cornwall until 1980, when he travelled to the central jungles of Peru to build a wood-fired Anagama kiln for an Amuesha Community, in a project funded by Oxfam and Survival International. He now works from his studio near Glastonbury in Somerset.

Producing work that has been referred to as ‘pottery without ego’, Dodd works mostly in stoneware, and sometimes in porcelain, producing functional pottery that eschews conceptual approaches to ceramic work in favour of the direct relationship between maker and object - “a sensibility to clay quality and glaze surface and depth – and an appreciation of throwing which is expressive of the clay itself, soft and vulnerable,” - and ultimately object and user. Fired in an oil-fired kiln using what is known as a ‘reducing flame’ to create warmer, earthier colours, Dodd employs subtle glazes made from natural granites, clays and wood ashes and his work reflects the unpretentious, preindustrial qualities of directness, spontaneity and generosity of form.

Mike Dodd has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad and is widely acknowledged as one of the leading practitioners in this field. He is a member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, a fellow of the Craft Potters Association and his work is held in collections at the V&A, London and the British Crafts Council Collection amongst others.

For further information contact Leach Pottery, Higher Stennack, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 2HE / 01736 799703
office@leachpottery.com / www.leachpottery.com