Emmanuel Cooper
My work is influenced by the urban city environment where I live, by such things as hard, textured surfaces, by street lighting, architecture, endless movement and sense of urgency. Colours are those of roads, pavements and building, textures those we encounter in the metropolis. All the work is fired to 1260˚C in an electric kiln. All the forms are thrown on the wheel and turned to create rounded forms reminiscent of geometrical forms such as cones, and to this extent the form and the surface are closely integrated.
The surface effects are achieved by applying layers of slip and glaze and multiple firings. The oxides such as iron, manganese and cobalt are used to give the dark inner layer that sometimes breaks through the glaze surface. All are fired to 1250˚C in an electric kiln in a slow firing cycle to allow body, slip and glaze to interact. Pots may be re-fired several times to achieve the effect I want.
I tend to work in batches or series of shapes and ideas, and these may take three to six months to develop, so that the making and glazing may be extremely slow as the success rate is low due to the reaction between slip and glaze. This way of working is relatively recent. At the present my pieces are larger and more textured, but I am currently exploring a new range of smooth glazed porcelain forms in rich, saturated colours.
Born Derbyshire
Education
1961-62 Hornsey College of Art
1960-61 Bournemouth College of Art
1958-60 Dudley Training College
1996 Ph D Middlesex University
2004 Honorary MA University of the Performing Arts
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2006 Contemporary Applied Arts
2005 Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh
2005 Craft Study Centre, Farnham
2004 Beaux Art Gallery, Bath
2004 Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
2003 Fine Art Society, London
2002 Ruthin Craft Centre 2002 – White Gallery, Hove
2000 Galerie L, Hamburg
2000 Beaux Arts, Bath
Selected Group Exhibitions
2006 Carlin Gallery, Paris
2004 Contemporary Applied Arts
2004 Blackwell House
2003 Fine Art Society
2002 Porcelain, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool,
2002 Christmas Exhibition, Fine Art Society, London
2001 FAS Now, Fine Art Society, London
2001 Art of the Unexpected, Sotheby’s Fine Art, New York
2001 SOFA Fine Crafts Fair, Chicago
2000 Give and Take, Contemporary Art Society, The Economist, London
Commissions
1987 Bird Bath, commissioned by Peter Brandt Associates
1985 Vases, Haselbech Church, Northampton. Private commissions
Collections
Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Scottish Museum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Warwick University
Art Gallery and Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Sevres Museum
Williamson Art Gallery, Aberystwyth Art Centre.
Allen Galley, Alton, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery. Cleveland Craft Centre