Richard Slee’s career as a studio ceramist now spans over thirty years. His interest in the material qualities of ceramic is exploited through form, colour and print. A craftsman aware of the history of making, these unique pieces produced are detached from a conscious elaborate craftsmanship and deny their complexity of making.
His ceramics are intrinsically about the domestic interior. There are references in his work to the decorative, the ornamental and the symbolic both from the past and in our contemporary culture. Although these sources are eclectic they are skilfully brought together and inevitably translated through the medium of ceramics.

“Slee’s understanding and appreciation of this tradition is anything but superficial. He understands that the ornamental tradition is meaningful for most people in as complex and as significant way as any self-conscious “art”; overtime, ornaments have been far more important in most people’s lives than fine art has ever been”.
Dr. Oliver Watson, Chief Curator of Ceramics and Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. in ‘Richard Slee, Grand Wizard of Studio Ceramics’ catalogue, BarrettMarsden Gallery, London 1998.

Richard Slee has established an International reputation. Exhibitions, Workshops have taken place in the Americas, Europe and the Far East. Works are part of Public Collections in Great Britain, Australia, U.S.A., Sweden, Holland, Japan and Korea.
A Commission for Sculpture at Goodwood in 2000 resulted in the first Ceramic Sculptural piece for that Park.
He was awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize for Ceramics 2001 for ‘the most significant contribution to contemporary ceramics...over the past five years’ in Britain… ‘Expanding the dialogue between ceramic tradition and visual culture in ways that resonate outward’.


Born 1946, Carlisle, Cumbria, UK
 
Education:
1986-1988 Royal College of Art, London. MA Design R.C.A.
1965-1970 Central School of Art and Design, London. BA Ceramics
1964-1965 Carlisle College of Art and Design
 
Present teaching:
1992 Professor, University of the Arts, London
1988 Principal Lecturer, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London
 
Selected major and solo exhibitions:
2004 Voodoo Shit” Hales Gallery, London. (Group)
2004 Richard Slee” Barrett Marsden Gallery, London. (Solo)
2004 Panoramas” The Pier Arts Center, Stomness, Orkney, Scotland (Solo)
2004 A Secret History of Clay” Tate Liverpool (Catalogue)
2003 Crafts Now-21 Artists from America, Europe and Asia” Kanazawa, Japan. (Catalogue)
2003 SHOW5 Retrospective,Richard Slee” The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent. Crafts Council, London and The Hub, Linconshire. (Monograph)
2003 Hypercrafting” Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. (Catalogue)
2003 Panorama” Tate St. Ives and Ruthin Crafts Centre, Wales. (Solo), (Catalogue)
2002 Richard Slee” Barrett Marsden Gallery, London. (Solo)
2002 The Uncanny Room” Pittshanger manor, Ealing and Bowes Museum, Co Durham (Catalogue)
2002 Sleepers” Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro. (Curator and Exhibitor)
2002 “Richard Slee” Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. (Solo)
2001 Jerwood Applied Arts Prize” Crafts Council, London and tour (Catalogue), award winner
2001 A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum” Baltimore Museum of Art and U.S.A. and Canada tour. (Catalogue)
2000 Richard Slee” BarrettMarsden Gallery, London. (Solo), (Catalogue)
2000 Contemporary English Ceramics” Keramikmuseet Grimmerhus, Denmark (Catalogue)
1998 Richard Slee” BarrettMarsden Gallery, London. (Solo), (Catalogue)
1997 JICA” Seoul Centre Gallery, Korea. (Catalogue)
1996 Hot off the Press” Tullie Hose Museum, Carlisle and U.K. tour (Catalogue)
1994 Richard Slee” Garth Clark Gallery, New York. (Solo)
1994 Richard Slee” Hering and Lehmann Gallery, Berlin, Germany. (Solo)
1993 The Raw and the Cooked” Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, touring London, Oxford, Swansea, Japan, Taiwan and France. (Catalogue)
1990 Three Ways of Seeing” Crafts Council, London and U.K. tour. Retrospective (Monograph)
1990 Richard Slee” National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. (Solo)
1989 Richard Slee- Recent Works” The City Gallery, Leicester, (Solo), (Catalogue)
1987 Richard Slee” Hordaland Kunstersentrum, Bergen and Gallery F.15, Norway. (Solo)
1985 Fast Forward” Institute of Contemporary Art, London and Kettles Yard, Cambridge. (Catalogue)
1977 Richard Slee” Smith and Others Gallery, London. (Solo)
 
Selected bibliography:
Richard Slee; Garth Clark, Cathy Courtney, The Potters Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent / Lund Humphries, London. 2003
Richard Slee, Grand Wizard; Oliver Watson, Tate St. Ives. 2003
Slee Selects; Alun Graves, Ceramic Review, September/October 2002
A career in clay; Emma Maiden, AN Magazine, October 2002
Contemporary Art and the Home; Editor: Colin Painter, Berg 2002
The persistance of Craft; Editor : Paul Greenhalgh. A&C Black 2002
Artist: Richard Slee; Julia Pitts, Arts Review, October 2001
Slee crowned King; Paul Vincent, Ceramics in Society, Autumn 2001
Intense times for an Ironic Potter; Lesley Jackson, The Independent, 6 October 2001
Richard Slee; Malcolm Haslam, Crafts, July 2000
Slee is King; Paul Vincent, Studio Pottery, June 2000
Richard Slee; Grayson Perry, cat. BarrettMarsden Gallery, London, 2000. Reprinted Studio pottery, June 2000
The Crafts in Britain in the 20th Century; Tanya Harrod, Yale University Press, Newhaven and London. 1999
Richard Slee-Grand Wizard of Studio Ceramics; Dr. Oliver Watson, Cat. BarrettMarsden Gallery, London. Oct. 1998
Something nasty in the Suburbs; Edmund de Waal, Crafts, November 1998
Richard Slee, o el Arte de Imprimir; Internacional Ceramica, Madrid. No. 66, 1998
Richard Slee's Tableware commission; Aloma Marshal, Ceramics Technical, Australia, 1998
Book Plates; Kathy Courtney, Art Monthly, December 1995
Reinventing the Familiar; Richard Slee, Artist Newsletter, June 1995
Keramishe Plastik; Gabi Dewald, Neue Bildende Kunst, February 1995
Richard Slee; Paul Greenhalgh, Studio Pottery, February 1993
Richard Slee: Ceramics in Studio; John Huston, Bellew Publishing/ Crafts Council 1990
British Studio Pottery; Oliver Watson, V&A/Phaidon/Christies, 1990
British Studio Ceramics; Paul Rice and Christopher Gowing, Barrie and Jenkins, London, 1989
Richard Slee- Recent Works; Sean Hetterly, Catalogue, The City Gallery, Leicester, 1989
Contemporary British Crafts; Catalogue Museums of Modern Art Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, 1988
The New Ceramics; Peter Dormer, Thames and Hudson, London, 1986
Fast Forward; Peter Dormer, Catalogue, I.C.A., London, 1985
British Ceramics; Ed Allington, Catalogue, Museum Het Kruithuis, s`Hertogenbosh, Holland, 1985
Richard Slee, Katherine Virgils; Richard Deacon, Catalogue, British Crafts Centre, London 1984
Routes of Exchange; Peter Dormer, Crafts, May 1984
Sevres with Krazy; Kat Alison Britton, Crafts, May 1983
Slee Notes; Janet Street-Porter, Design, No.293, May 1973
 
Works represented in the collections of:
Arizona State University
Arts Review, London
Bradford City Museum
British Council
Buckinghamshire County Museum
Crafts Council, London
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Hongik University, Korea
Hove Museum, South East Arts Collection
James Mayor Gallery, London
Knokke Heist Municipality, Belgium
Leicester City Museum
Los Angeles County Museum
Manchester Metropolitan Museum
Museum Het Kruithuis, Holland
Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Muzej GRAD, Slovenia
National Museum, Stockholm
The Potteries Museum and Art Galley, Stoke-on-Trent
Norwich Art Gallery
Paisley Museum, Scotland
Shigararaki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
University College of Wales
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
 
Richard Slee is represented in the United Kingdom by:
BarrettMarsden Gallery,
17-18 Great Sutton Street
London, EC1V ODN
Email: barrettmarsden@bmgallery.co.uk
Web site: www.bmgallery.co.uk
 
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