Ardmore ceramics

Love these real eye-catching ceramics from Ardmore Ceramic Art on display at 50 Golborne Gallery.

Ardmore Ceramic Art was founded by Fée Halsted and the artist Bonnie Ntshalintshali in Natal, South Africa, in 1985. The gallery describes Fee and Bonnie as having "developed a specific way of working, taking inspiration from the Dutch ceramic tradition which they twisted with inventions of their own, liberating themselves from the past constraints of ceramic making with the free use of glue and of precise and expressive hand-painting."

What I found especially interesting about the company is their community focus - Ardmore nurtures and trains artists local to them - and the incorporation of social messages into their ceramic pieces, such as pieces by the late Wonderboy Nxumalo who "embellished his ceramics with his poetry inspired by the joys of love and the sorrows of HIV-Aids – warning people about the disease without forgetting the thrill of being in love" This reminded me of the messages printed on the kangas exhibited in the exhibtion Social Fabric: African Textiles Today at the William Morris Museum.

Thanks to my lovely friend and fellow artist Camilla Brendon for suggesting the visit to her workplace at the Golborne gallery.