Christie Brown’s figurative practice is informed by an interest in our relationship with objects and the significance and relevance of museum collections and archaic artefacts to contemporary art. Archaeology presents a fragmented narrative of past lives and holds parallels with the practice of psychoanalysis where layers are carefully stripped away to reveal hidden information. Her work references these archaic traces as well as the mythology, narrative and symbolism associated with clay and its relationship with other materials such as wax, bronze and plaster. She often presents her work through site or theme-specificity and her making method of press-moulding allows her to explore the nature of repetition though installation and series.
Christie Brown is an artist and Emerita Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster in London. She graduated from Harrow School of Art in 1982 and set up her north London studio that year. At Westminster she taught on the BA, MA and PhD programmes while maintaining and developing her sculptural practice. She was Principal Investigator on the AHRC funded project Ceramics in the Expanded Field, awarded to the University’s Ceramics Research Centre (CRC-UK) in 2011, and continues as a member of the CRC-UK. She has exhibited her ceramic sculpture widely in the UK and abroad and frequently lectured about her practice at international residencies and conferences. Her work is featured in several private and public collections in Europe and the USA, including the Victoria and Albert Museum UK and the Mint Museum USA. She is represented by Messums Gallery, London and Wiltshire.
BIOGRAPHY
2016- Emerita Professor of Ceramics, University of Westminster
2001-2016 Professor of Ceramics, University of Westminster
1993-2012 Lecturer in Ceramics, University of Westminster
1980-82 Harrow School of Art Higher Diploma in Studio Pottery
1966-9 Manchester University BA degree General Arts.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024
Candeger Furtun and Christie Brown, Galeri Nev, Ankara, Turkiye
2023
Christie Brown: Drawn Together, Standing Apart, Messums London
2022
Icons of Uncertainty, solo exhibition at Messums Wiltshire.
2021
Untold Forms of Life, solo exhibition at Messums London.
Award, British Ceramics Biennial Shortlist exhibition at Spode China Hall, Stoke-on-Trent.
2020
Beyond the Vessel: Narratives in contemporary European ceramics, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury.
2019
Cultural Icons: Remaking a popular pottery tradition, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.
Beyond the Vessel, Mesher Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.
2018
Dream On, Front Room Gallery, V&A Museum of Childhood, London.
Material Earth II: Myths, Material and Metamorphoses, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury.
Humanism: Poem of Earth for Human, Clayarch Museum, Gimhae. Korea.
Member’s Summer Show, Royal Society of Sculptors, London
2017
Material: Earth, The New British Clay Movement, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury.
Concrete and Clay, Roaming Room, London.
Sculptural Ceramics and Stone, Pangolin London.
2016
Rara Avis, Arthouse1, London (solo).
Zoomorphic, Llantarnan Arts Centre, Cwmbran, Wales.
Exposed: Heads, Busts and Nudes, Ferrin Contemporary USA.
Drawing Inspirations. Craft in the Bay, Cardiff, Wales.
2014
Ambika’s Dream, in Ceramics in the Expanded Field Ambika P3, London.
Mythology Meets Archetype, Northern Clay Centre Minneapolis, USA.
2013
Marking the Line: Ceramics and Architecture, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, touring to Port Eliot, Cornwall and Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing.
Sculptural Ceramics, Pangolin London, Kings Place, London. (focus artist).
Award. British Ceramics Biennial, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke–on-Trent.
2012
DreamWork, Freud Museum, London. (solo).
Another Room, Room Artspace, London.
Tradition and Innovation: Five Decades of Harrow Ceramics, CAA, London.
Women Make Sculpture, Pangolin London, Kings Place, London.
2010
Hybrid Hermaphrodites, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia USA.
Nude in Chicago, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago USA.
Crucible, with Gallery Pangolin, Gloucester Cathedral.
Korero; Ceramics in Conversation, Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Taipei, Taiwan.
Hybrid Toys, The Ideas Store Whitechapel, London. (solo).
2009
Fire and Brimstone, Gallery Pangolin, Stroud.
Ceramics from Great Britain, Galerie fur Angewandte Kunst, Munich.
2008
Myths and Legends, Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
2007
After Life: Collective Traces, Egyptian Galleries, Manchester Museum.
2006
Collective Traces: A Response to the Petrie Museum. Institute of Archaeology, London. (solo).
Foundation Deposits, Artist in Residence Exhibition, Hunter College, New York. USA, (solo).
2005
Body Language, Gallery Pangolin, Stroud.
The Fragmented Figure, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.
Celebrating 30 Years, Crafts Council Shop at the V&A.
2004
The Human Figure, Rufford Craft Centre, Nottingham.
Christie Brown, Heidi Morstang. London Gallery West, Harrow.
2003
Between the Dog and the Wolf. Kingsgate Gallery, London. (solo)
Sterling Stuff, with Pangolin. Reykjavik, Iceland and Friends Room, RA, London.
2002
About Face, Croydon Clocktower Museum, Croydon.
2001
Recent Sculpture. Perimeter Gallery, Chicago USA. (solo)
Ikons of Identity, Craftspace Touring, Birmingham.
British Studio Ceramics, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, USA.
Figurative Ceramics, Crafts Council Shop at the V&A Museum, London.
Standing Room Only, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool.
2000
Fragments of Narrative, Wapping Power Station, London. (solo)
1998
The Nude in Clay 2, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago & Racine Museum USA.
Bodies in Clay, Firstsite at the Minories, Colchester.
Jerwood Prize Exhibition, Galerie fur angewandte Kunst, Munich, Germany.
Jerwood Prize Exhibition at the DAI, Marianne Heller, Heidelberg,.
1997
Crafts Council Showcase, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. (solo)
1996
The Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts 1996: Ceramics. Crafts Council, London
1995
The Cast of Characters, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. (solo)
1991
Aspects of Sculpture, Galerie fur englische Keramik, Sandhausen, and Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany.
1989
The Harrow Connection – Studio Pottery 1963-1988, NCCA Sunderland and Crafts Council, London.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales,
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, USA.
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury.
Longhouse Foundation, East Hampton, USA.
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, USA.
Musee National de Ceramique, Sèvres, France.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada.
The Museum of Fine Arts Racine, USA.
The Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
York City Art Gallery, Yorks.
AWARDS
2018
Accepted as a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
2016-
Awarded title of Emerita Professor, University of Westminster.
2011
Arts and Humanities Research Council Standard 3-year Research Grant (with CRC-UK, University of Westminster, London).
2009
Artist in Residence Award II, International Ceramics Research Centre, Guldagergaard, Denmark
2005
Arts and Humanities Research Council, Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts
2001
British Council assistance for solo show in Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, USA
2000
London Arts Board Award to Individual Artists for solo show at Wapping.
1996
Shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts: Ceramics.
1991
British Council Assistance for solo show at Galerie L in Hamburg, Germany.
REFERENCES
Natalie Baerselman Le Gros. Christie Brown. In the Depth of Matter and Uncertainty, Ceramics Now, November 2022.
www.ceramicsnow.org/articles/christie-brown-in-the-depth-of-matter-and-uncertainty/
Natalie Baerselman le Gros. Theatre of Lives, Ceramic Review, May-June 2021.
Glen R. Brown. Christie Brown: Anti-Hierarchical Hybridity, Ceramics, Art and Perception issue 110.
Tessa Peters. Christie Brown: Narrative Strategies. New Ceramics, Jan-Feb 2017.
Grant Gibson. Christie Brown: Animal Instinct, Crafts, March-April 2016.
Glen R. Brown. Ceramics in the Expanded Field. Ceramics Monthly, October 2015.
Amanda Game. Christie Brown: DreamWork, Ceramic Review, March-April 2013.
Shane Enright. Christie Brown find beauty in Freudian slip, Crafts.(UK) Jan-Feb 2013
Tony Birks, Review of Hybrid Toys, Ceramics, Art & Perception, Issue 84. August 2011.
Alun Graves, Review of Christie Brown, London Gallery West, Ceramic Review, March-April 2005.
Babette Martini, Review of Between the Dog and the Wolf, Interpreting Ceramics No 5. 2004
Emma Maiden, Review of Fragments of Narrative, Crafts, Sept-Oct 2000
Edmund de Waal, Return to your Dust: Figuration as Transgression, from Fragments of Narrative catalogue 2000, reprinted in Ceramics, Art & Perception, January 2002.
Katy Bevan, Under Control, Ceramic Review, No 180, 1999
Rosemary Hill, Review of Kingsgate Gallery show, American Ceramics, Vol.12, No3. 1997.
Ruth Pavey, Character Studies, Crafts, Sept-Oct 1996.
Janice West, The Cast of Characters, catalogue essay for Scottish Gallery show 1995
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND TALKS (by the artist)
Untold Forms of Life: Conversations with material
Ceramic Art London Artist Talks programme April 2022
Uncanny, Uhygge and Unseen: European folk narratives in contemporary figurative ceramics. Paper given at CoCA conference Restating Clay. 2018.
Mindful Expansion: Communication through ceramic art and responses to history. Paper given at the Humanism seminar, Clayarch Gimhae Museum, Korea. 2018.
Casting About: re-searching through practice. Annual CoCA Lecture, York Art Gallery, November 2016.
Contemporary Clay and Museum Culture, co-editor of book with Clare Twomey and Julian Stair, Routledge 2016.
The Double Life of Objects, Artist’s talk given at the International Ceramics Festival Aberystwyth, July 2015.
Venturing Beyond the Field of Vision. Paper given at the conference Ceramics in the Expanded Field, University of Westminster, July 2014.
Ceramics Expands its Field, Café Curio Symposium; Camden Arts Centre London. 2103,
Working and Dreaming. Panel presentation NCECA 2013, Houston, Texas, USA.
Dreaming and Working, Freud Museum symposium: Interpreting Collections: Idea, Object, Site. 2013
Anxiety Of Endeavour: Personal Recollections of Harrow. Published in Tradition and Innovation: Five Decades of Harrow Ceramics, University of Westminster 2012.
In the Playroom: A Work in Progress. The Go-Between conference University of Glamorgan and National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. 2009.
Reflection in Action-Practice Based Research in the UK. NCECA 2009, Phoenix, Arizona.USA
Collective Traces, Institute of Archaeology, London 2006.
Embodying Transformation. The Fragmented Figure Conference in UWIC Cardiff and the Storytelling and Poetry Seminar at The International Ceramic Research Centre Guldagergaard, Denmark in 2005. Published in online journal Interpreting Ceramics No 8, 2006.
Clay Bodies. Paper given at Body Politic Conference, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1999. Published by the Crafts Council 2000.
Assembling a Cast of Characters, Ceramics Art and Perception, Winter 1996.