Design Daily: Paul Philp Ceramics at Hedge Gallery
Author:Sarah Virginia WhiteWe love San Francisco’s Hedge Gallery for its collection of elevated and unusual design, and our latest visit, to take a spin through Shadows, an exhibition of works by Welsh ceramicist Paul Philp, did not disappoint.
Featuring some 30 works, some of which were released from the artist’s personal reserve and on view for the first time, the show spans a collection of clay vessels in Philp’s signature eroded aesthetic. To achieve it, the artist mixes impurities—such as sand and other materials—into his stoneware to create a pockmarked surface texture. Subtle glazes and a high-temperature, wood-fired Japanese kiln result in an elemental, oxidized palette. The resulting works appear to have been unearthed during an archeological dig, but are by no means primitive.
Philp, whose works appears in the permanent collections of Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal and the Musée National de Céramique in Sèvres, France, was a former educator who switched careers in the 1970s to pursue ceramics. After a stint at the Cardiff College of Art, he and his wife decamped to the Welsh countryside, where they built a proper ceramics studio and cultivated the gardens of their smallholding, and where Philp has built new processes for creating his primal finishes. Some he fires up to five times, while others get an application of a dry ash glaze for a completely different result.
Philp works out of a stone-walled studio that he and his wife built in the Welsh countryside.
Be sure to stop by the exhibition to view Paul Philp’s impressive works. Shadows runs through November 2 at Hedge Gallery; 501 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, Tuesday through Friday 11 am – 6 pm and Saturday 11 am – 5 pm.
