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Natasha’s thrown forms are pared-down and minimal. Their potency comes from a tension of opposites. They defy gravity with their floating pale rims but are also steeped in a visceral materiality. The glazes are fat. They overflow, and roll plumply around bases with an edible quality, like luminous lemon curd. She revels in the exhilarating risk of making technically demanding large forms to show off porcelain’s muscular power and simultaneous delicacy. The scattered cylinders are tiny but intense, like Persian miniature paintings.
Colour is pivotal. Natasha harnesses the near physical power it has to immerse you, like being in water. She wants to know if that luminous space inside a bowl, where the colour hovers, can increase in intensity. Natasha combines the cool transparent qualities of old Chinese glazes with the hot raw brashness of modern industrial stain colorants. She pursues subtle translucencies as well as strange milky oranges or violent opaque yellows bordering on lime. Inspired by the ancient architecture of ziggurats, Natasha stacks colour and relies on the way one colour reacts with another to create a kinetic vibrancy, like an electrical charge.
Photo: Jenny Lewis
EDUCATION AND TEACHING
2000-02 Royal College of Art, London, Ceramics & Glass (MA)
1992-95 Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Farnham
Three Dimensional Design/Ceramics (BA), First Class Honours
1986-89 Cambridge University, Japanese Studies (BA)
2002-04 Part-time lecturer of Art & Design (Ceramics), Bath Spa University
2002-05 Part-time lecturer of Art & Design (Ceramics), UCA, Farnham
AWARDS
2014 Short-listed for the Dulux Colour Awards, ‘Best in the Arts’ Category
2012 Contemporary Art Society/Art Fund Acquisition Scheme
CAS’s The New Story of Craft acquisition scheme with support from the Art Fund, enabled Gallery Oldham, Touchstones Rochdale, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham City Museums & Galleries and Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery Trust, to co-acquire Ocean (1,000 tiny vessels, 2009)
2009 Short-listed, British Ceramics Biennial Awards, One-off Category
2005 Chelsea Crafts Fair: Elle Decoration ‘Future Classic’ Award
2003 Crafts Council Development Award
Adrian Sassoon Award for the Arts of the Kiln
Evening Standard Homes & Property – Best Domestic Product
2002 RCA Critical & Historical Studies – Distinction in MA thesis
1995 Habitat Design Award, New Designers, Islington
TALKS
2015 ‘Ocean’
Nottingham City Museum & Art Gallery
2013 ‘Fluid Colour’
Contemporary Art Society lecture at Touchstones Art Gallery, Rochdale;
‘On my Material’
Lecture series The Thinking Craftsperson at the School of Architecture, Sheffield University
2012 ‘Seeing Red’
Designer Talks at the Conran Shop, London Design Festival 2012
‘A Totemic Look at Colour’
Lecture series Colour for Success, Colour Group of Great Britain, London
‘Savage Colour’
CAL, Royal College of Art
2008 ‘Porcelain and Colour’
Conference on Colour and Ceramics, Bath Spa University
2007 ‘An Exploration of Colour and Porcelain’
ISCAEE Ceramics Symposium, UCA
BIBLIOGRAPHY: BOOKS & CATALOGUES
2007 The Essential Vessel, Breaking the Mould, Black Dog Publishing
2007 Testing the Zeitgeist, Ceramic Review, Issue 223
2006 To Hold exhibition catalogue, ‘Running Commentary’, Brantwood Publishing
BIBLIOGRAPHY: ARTICLES & ESSAYS
2018 Adamson, G., Great Estates: How Contemporary Ceramics Are Keeping Chatsworth Relevant, Frieze
Finch, M., Scaling up: Natasha Daintry on the Power of Porcelain, Sotheby’s
2007 Britton, A., Testing the Zeitgeist, Ceramic Review, Issue 223
LARGE SCALE & PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2016-2018 Sowing Colour, Chatsworth House Trust, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
Gallery Oldham, Oldham, Greater Manchester
Nottingham City Museums & Galleries, Nottingham
Touchstones Rochdale Museum, Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle, Cumbria
Fidelity Investments, London
Fidelity Investments, Hong Kong
SOLO SHOWS
2015 Ocean, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Nottingham
2013 Ocean, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust, Carlisle
Fluid Colour, Touchstones Art Gallery, Rochdale
2009 Raw Material, egg, London
2007 Porcelain and Colour, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2023 Abstract Ceramics, Messums Wiltshire, Wiltshire
2022 Living With Art We Love, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
Farnham, Oxford Ceramics Gallery, Oxford
Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
2021 Life Stories, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
2020 Time, Suspended – Group Show of Women Artists, Ting-Ying at The Gallery at Catherine Prevost, London
Adrian Sassoon, TEFAF, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2019 Adrian Sassoon, TEFAF, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2018 Adrian Sassoon, Pavilion of Art & Design, London
Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
2016 VASE: Function Reviewed, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
2015 Adrian Sassoon, Pavilion of Art & Design, London
Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
Adrian Sassoon, COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London
2014 Natural Order, Purdy Hicks, London
Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
Making Waves: Art Inspired by the Sea, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston
Adrian Sassoon, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London
2013 Art of the Curious, Colnaghi, London
Crafted – Makers of the Exceptional, Somerset House, London
Adrian Sassoon, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London
2012 Red, The Conran Shop, London Design Festival 2012
On Form, Joanna Bird Pottery, London
Tradition: Historic and Modern Pots, Gallery Oldham
Adrian Sassoon, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London
2011 Adrian Sassoon, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London
2010 Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London
2009 Better Than Grey: A Serious Consideration of Colour, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk
Affinities – Six Women Potters, Joanna Bird Pottery, SOFA, New York
Tablewares – An International Collection, Rex Irwin, Sydney
2008 Exuberance: The Power of Colour, CAA at Circus, London
The Cup, CAA, London
Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
Adrian Sassoon, London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2007 Three X 3, The Makers Guild in Cardiff, Wales
Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
Hue, Line & Form, CAA, London
2006 Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
Porcelain, Joanna Bird Pottery, London
To Hold, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin
2005 Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
Adrian Sassoon, London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2004 Showcase, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
2003 Double Glazed, Crafts Council Gallery Shop, London
Adrian Sassoon, ART2003, Business Design Centre, London
Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
2002 Feast of Colour, Crafts Council Shop at the V&A Museum
2002 Graduation Show, Royal College of Art, London