Works by over 60 international artists will be on show in Stoke-on-Trent later this year when the UK’s single largest ceramics event makes a return.
The full programme for the 2025 British Ceramics Biennial has been announced with six weeks of free exhibitions, screenings, talks and events being held at the former Spode pottery site in Stoke.
The event’s headline exhibition – and the leading platform for contemporary ceramic practice in the UK – ,Award, will bring together work by 10 leading artists competing for a £10,000 prize. They include Jane Perryman, whose plant-dyed ceramics chart her 20-year rewilding of an agricultural wasteland, and Daniel Silver who examines the human experience through his ceramic and oil paint sculptures.
The 2023 winner Mella Shaw will return with a new installation exploring the ethics and impact of harvesting polymetallic modules from the sea bed for use in electronics.
Earth architecture project Playscape will transform a construction clay soil into a children’s play area and BCB’s first Clay Films programme will showcase the work of 10 Global Majority artists working in film and clay.
Artist Josie KO will be exploring the role of Black women in Stoke-on-Trent in The Chimney Princess. She will be working with local communities to create a new goddess for the city inspired by the shape of Stoke-on-Trent’s iconic bottle kilns.
New work from rising ceramic stars including Tim Fluck, Caroline Gray, Andrea Leigh, Chi Onwordi and
Krzysztof Strzelecki will also be on display.
There will be a Clay Conference examining the opportunities, challenges and environmental impact of re-using clay sourced from UK construction spoil and Raverina’s Dance Floor: an interactive, sensory art installation by Carolina Garfo inspired by the ceramic practices of the Algarve in Portugal.
The British Ceramics Biennial 2025 will run from 6 September to 19 October. It comes after Stoke-on-Trent was named a World Craft City and coincides with the city’s centenary year.
Clare Wood, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of British Ceramics Biennial, said: ‘It is wonderful to be back at Spode for the next British Ceramics Biennial.
“We’ll be animating this important post-industrial site with ambitious, imaginative and important works in clay and ceramic.
“The Biennial is a true celebration of clay’s creative potential, both for making beautiful objects and for tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time.
“I’m looking forward to sharing the work of over 60 outstanding artists with our thousands of visitors over the course of the Biennial.”
More information about the Biennial can be found here.
