Biography
Deirdre Hawthorne studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford and Ceramics at City Lit, London. She exhibits exclusively in mainland UK with Erskine Hall and Coe and in New York with Cavin- Morris Gallery. Her work is regularly shown at international art fairs including SOFA New York and Chicago and COLLECT in London. Hawthorne’s voice and imagery are rooted in the Irish landscape, in particular places that hold a charge for her – seashores, town lands, gardens and city streets.
“Through my work I try to convey the layering of marks – physical and emotional, natural and unnatural, ancient, fresh, accidental or purposely inflicted, on places and people.”
Hawthorne makes hand–built, sculptural vessels, made of paper-thin earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. Each vessel is unique, a little story in its own right but each takes its place within a group of interrelated pieces – moments of time, memories of a place, of a family, linked together by form and process but set apart by nuance and chance. The forms are simple but the paper-thin walls are deeply marked by rolling in plants or fabric, imprinting slip or by piercing with pins, sticks and staples. She works in sequence, keeping to the same proportions but letting the marks and rhythms flow from one piece to the next. The vessels are saggar fired to create smoke and reduction effects. This is a merciless firing process that pushes the clay to its limits but allows chance and accident to take effect. Many pots are lost in the firing but the pieces that survive are idiosyncratic and unrepeatable, fragile, dark, yet inherently resilient.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011 a hand held, Wild Strawberry Gallery, Strangford, Northern Ireland
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 Elementals: Women Sculpting Animism, Cavin-Morris, Chelsea, New York, USA
2013 Restless II: The Mix, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
2013
C8 – A Celebration of Making, Craft & Design Collective, Enniskillen Castle, Northern Ireland
2013 Classic and Contemporary, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London
2012 Summer Show, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London
2012 Things That Fall In Between, R-Space, Lisburn, Northern Ireland
2011 Winter Exhibition, Lund Gallery, Yorkshire, UK
2011 The Unexpected Edge: Yugen in Contemporary Craft, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
2011
30 Flowerfield, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart, Northern Ireland
2011 Pushing the Boundaries: Contemporary Ceramic Sculputure, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Co Kerry
2011 Plumbline & Orchard Gallery, St Ives, UK
2010
Contained Excitement: Pleasures of the Void, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
2010
Contemporary Ceramics, Galerie Besson, London
2010
Plumbline & Orchard Gallery, St Ives, UK
2009
Summer Show, Galerie Besson, London
2009 Diverse Practices: Celebrating 20 Years of the City Lit Diploma, Barrett Marsden Gallery, London