Four ceramic artworks designed by pop icon Robbie Williams have gone on display in Stoke-on-Trent.
The former Take That star, who was born on the city and is currently part way through a European tour, collaborated with the Barlaston-based ceramic design brand 1882 Ltd on the project.
The company’s potters have brought to life technicolour pieces inspired by two of Robbie’s drawings of Jesus and The Pope.
They make up part of the 100 Years, 60 Designers & 1 Future exhibition marking the city’s centenary and can be found in The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery’s Fine Art Gallery.
Robbie said: “I have made some of my art out of clay with 1882 Ltd – and it looks amazing. The pottery industry has given me and my people a sense of identity, a sense of pride. Clay built our city. Having it on display in the Fine Art Gallery at the Potteries Museum on the Centenary of our city makes total sense.”
The exhibition – the brainchild of 1882 Ltd owner Emily Johnson – also features 60 specially-commissioned plates created by famous designers including Zandra Rhodes, Bruce McLean and Barber and Osgerby on display for the first time.
The plates – signed by each artist and designer – will be auctioned off at the end of the exhibition, with the bulk of the proceeds going towards an apprenticeship scheme and 15 per cent going to QEST to fund a Saturday Club for Stoke-on-Trent schoolchildren to be given the opportunity to work with clay.
Emily, a fifth generation of the famous Stoke-on-Trent Johnson Brothers family, said:
“We are so incredibly proud to be showing Robbie’s work in the heart of where it was made and where we are from. Robbie is an audacious visionary and it has been a joy to work with him and bring his artwork to life – a true meeting of the minds of Stokies – and so to show it in the Fine Art Gallery of the Potteries Museum is completing the circle.
“We have also curated 60 incredible artists and designers who have donated a piece of artwork – whether an illustration or drawing, painting, creative graphic -their brilliance and generosity just shows the love and support for our incredible industry and our amazing Potters. This is a wonderful, life-enhancing and inspiring project.”
Other contributors include world-famous designers like Hayden Kays, Maxim and Giles Deacon.
A limited-edition run of each plate, unsigned, will also be available to buy, with proceeds also going to same causes.
