Rachel Grimshaw (b. 1967) is based in her hometown of Wigan in North England. She attended St Helens School of Art, followed by Manchester Polytechnic (3-dimensional design course, specializing in interior design), graduating with a BA Hons. She has been an Interior Designer within an architectural practice since 1990, hence her ongoing interest in architecture and a sense of place. In 2009, she gained a Distinction in MA in Ceramics at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. Professional Membership of the Craft Potters Association was granted in 2012. Exhibitions have been held widely in the UK, including at Galerie Besson, London, The Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Contemporary Ceramics, London, and Pangolin London sculpture gallery. She was selected to show at Ceramic Art London in 2022 at Central St Martins University of the Arts London.
Her pieces have been exhibited widely beyond the UK in several international competition exhibitions in countries such as Australia, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Latvia, and Japan, where she gained an ‘Honourable Mention’ at MINO in 2014 and was awarded ‘The Land of Pottery’ 2nd prize at the Mallorcan Ceramics Biennale. A solo show in Rome followed a residency at C.R.E.T.A, where she produced a new body of work using locally dug clay, entitled ‘Genius Locii’. In 2023, she was awarded 3rd prize at the XVII International Contemporary Ceramics Award, Cerco, in Zaragoza, Spain.
Rachel Grimshaw’s work is in several international collections, including Mino, Japan, and the Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Arts in Hungary. She currently sells her work via several online galleries, including Sculpture Source, curated by Pangolin London sculpture gallery.
Visit Rachel Grimshaw’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Selected works, 2019-2023
My work is about the clay; its pliable, immediate qualities. Like a photograph capturing a ‘frozen moment,’ this material, when fired, fixes forever a gesture, an impression. In my unusual working method of using solid forms, I aim to achieve precision and fluidity, energy and stillness.
Hand building in both solid Parian porcelain and, separately, heavily grogged stoneware, marks are created by impressing found objects into the wet clay, their origins occasionally hinted at. Living in the North of England, the sculptural qualities of landscape find their way into my work; linear imprints referencing the lines of dry stone walls across the contours of a hillside. Some forms allude to the built environment but deliberately avoid explicit references. How the light interacts with a piece is an important factor in the presentation. Although my work has no prescribed narrative, there is a meditative quality, both in the physical making and in the finished piece. I value the function of contemplation my forms bring and their ability to represent the nature of silences.
I often work in twos or a small series of pieces, the mark-making connecting each piece. These work in a dialogue, reflecting, responding, and contradicting, like riffing on a theme.
The stoneware clay is coloured when wet with body stains and oxides, some in muted tones, others humming with intensity. The pieces are fired in an electric kiln over three days. In pushing the material to its limits, my wish is to explore three-dimensional shapes which seem to change from every angle while retaining a real sense of the qualities of clay.
