Ken Eastman

Ceramics - Winner 1998

Ken Eastman studied at Edinburgh College of Art (1979-83) and at the Royal College of Art, London (1984-87). He exhibits widely internationally and has won prestigious awards in the field of the ceramic arts, including the ‘Premio Faenza’, Italy in 1995, the ‘Gold Medal’ at the World Ceramic Exposition 2001 Korea and the ‘President De la Generalitat Valencia’at the 5th Biennale International De Ceramica, Manises, Spain. In 1998-99 he was awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Ceramics. He is also consultant designer for Royal Crown Derby.

His work is held in numerous public collections including The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal, Canada; Power Museum, Sydney, Australia; Museum Boijmans van Beunigen, Rotterdam; Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, MAD Museum of Art and Design, New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

The core of his work centres around the idea of the vessel. He has never made functional work, but rather uses the vessel as a subject- to give meaning and form to an expression. Working through the medium of ceramics, Eastman can be both builder and painter; can handle shape and structure, as well as exploring tone and colour.

He is represented in the UK by the Marsden Woo Gallery, London, who in 2004 published ‘Ken Eastman, Behind the Gates of Clay’, a monograph about the development of the artist’s work. Eastman was elected as a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in 2003.