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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