PEARCE WORKS EXCLUSIVELY WITH WHITE STONEWARE AS HIS CORE MEDIUM, THEN APPLIES HIS OWN UNIQUE FINISHING TECHNIQUES TO THE FINAL PIECE
ONE OF PEARCE’S FAVORITE PART OF THE PROCESS IS WHEN THE CHARACTER OF A PIECE BREAKS THROUGH, WHEN A SHAPE IS BEING REFINED OR WHEN SOMETHING UNFORESEEN CHANGES.
PEARCE IS INFLUENCED BY THE LANDSCAPE SURROUNDING HIM – THE HILLS, CLIFFS, BEACHES, THE SHAPE AND FOLIAGE OF THE TREES – WHICH HE TRANSMUTES THROUGH HIS HANDS INTO TOPOGRAPHICAL FORMS.
THESE SUBSTANTIAL (AND HOLLOW!) FORMS ARE HAND-BUILT RATHER THAN THROWN, OFTEN STARTING AS DRAPED SLABS, THEN DEVELOPED FURTHER WITH COILS AND STRIPS.
Martin Pearce
B.
1954 KENT, UNITED KINGDOM
UPRIGHT BUBBLE RING, 2019, WHITE STONEWARE WITH VITREOUS SLIPS AND MODIFIED GLAZES, BEESWAX FINISH
RING FORM, 2019, WHITE STONEWARE WITH VITREOUS SLIPS AND MODIFIED GLAZES, BEESWAX FINISH
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: BLACK BRIDGE, BLACK DISH, 2018, WHITE STONEWARE WITH VITREOUS SLIPS AND MODIFIED GLAZES, BEESWAX FINISH, VARIABLE DIMENSIONS
PORTAL I, 2019, WHITE STONEWARE WITH VITREOUS SLIPS AND MODIFIED GLAZES, BEESWAX FINISH
BLACK DISH, 2018, WHITE STONEWARE WITH VITREOUS SLIPS AND MODIFIED GLAZES, BEESWAX FINISH
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: DISH, BRANCH AND SAIL, 2018, WHITE STONEWARE WITH VITREOUS SLIPS AND MODIFIED GLAZES, BEESWAX FINISH, VARIABLE DIMENSIONS
Martin pearce began his career as an interior designer in the late 70s. During this time he began collecting contemporary ceramics from fairs and galleries in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. With his father, he had thrown his first pot at age ten and ceramics over the years slowly traveled from his periphery to the forefront of his attention. In the early 90s, when a fire destroyed his studio and his archive of drawings, pearce interpreted this as a profound sign to make ceramics his full-time obsession. Delving into the aesthetic and technical aspects, he began experimenting on his own.
WORK
As an interior designer, pearce would have everything clear in his head and then draw it out. Finding the opposite is true with his ceramics; he draws by the natural process of making with less emphasis on the cerebral. His biomorphic and weighty molecular forms enclose space and volume to a consistent dramatic effect, conveying a quiet sense of the ancient and mysterious. These substantial forms are hand-built rather than thrown, using coils and strips their bold presence exudes a power, like long-lost chunks of a monolith.
From his home and studio on the south coast of England, pearce works specifically with white stoneware, vitreous slips and modified glazes finished with beeswax. Influenced by the landscape surrounding him, the hills, cliffs and beaches, the shape and foliage of the trees – which transmute through his hands into topographical forms.
Pearce has two favorite parts in the making process. The first is the point when the character of a piece breaks through, when a shape is being refined or when something unforeseen changes. The second is during the creation of a surface when deliberate mark-making is replaced with intuitive action. At both stages, a different part of his brain is tapped to create something on an intuitive level, that had not existed before.
Pearce’s freeform, organic work is highly regarded in the united kingdom’s contemporary ceramic community and has been long featured in import collections in the United States.
WORK
As an interior designer, pearce would have everything clear in his head and then draw it out. Finding the opposite is true with his ceramics; he draws by the natural process of making with less emphasis on the cerebral. His biomorphic and weighty molecular forms enclose space and volume to a consistent dramatic effect, conveying a quiet sense of the ancient and mysterious. These substantial forms are hand-built rather than thrown, using coils and strips their bold presence exudes a power, like long-lost chunks of a monolith.
From his home and studio on the south coast of England, pearce works specifically with white stoneware, vitreous slips and modified glazes finished with beeswax. Influenced by the landscape surrounding him, the hills, cliffs and beaches, the shape and foliage of the trees – which transmute through his hands into topographical forms.
Pearce has two favorite parts in the making process. The first is the point when the character of a piece breaks through, when a shape is being refined or when something unforeseen changes. The second is during the creation of a surface when deliberate mark-making is replaced with intuitive action. At both stages, a different part of his brain is tapped to create something on an intuitive level, that had not existed before.
Pearce’s freeform, organic work is highly regarded in the united kingdom’s contemporary ceramic community and has been long featured in import collections in the United States.