statement

Combining clay with a range of processes including animation and installation, Katie Spragg creates work that aims to arouse curiosity. Her current work explores our relationship with nature; specifically the ways that humans and plants co-exist - how we attempt to curate nature yet it grows and thrives beyond human ordering. She hopes to motivate an appreciation for the natural world, yet not be elitist about the environments that are revered – to see value in the overlooked nature that exist in urban spaces as well as vast, natural landscapes.

Through workshops and projects, Katie often creates work in response to collaboration and participation of other people, most recently with young people from Lambeth Young Carers and people with Dementia through the Clay for Dementia at the Garden Museum for an Arts Council and National Lottery Heritage funded project Lambeth Wilds (2019).

BIO

Katie’s catalogue of work includes a piece purchased for the V&A Museum collection (2017), a permanent installation for the Garden Museum (2019) and commissions for the British Ceramics Biennale (2017) and Sotheby’s (2018) as well as numerous private collections and commissions. Her work has been exhibited by the Craft Council in London and Miami (2017), included in the British Council’s touring Film Festival (current) and presented at solo shows at Blackwell, Arts and Crafts House (2018), the Garden Museum (2018) and Pi Artworks (2019).

Katie is a tutor at the Royal College of Art, a founding member of Collective Matter; an outreach group who pioneer collaborative practice through clay, and has developed a Clay for Dementia programme with the Garden Museum. Working with and in response to others and their stories is an important part of her creative practice.

CV

Selected Exhibitions

Plants, Porcelain, People: Katie Spragg & Norwich International Youth Project, St Peter Hungate, Norwich, May 2021
Ceramics: Facing the New, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland, May 2021
Gathering, Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, November 2020
Crafts Council’s Collect, Ruup & Form, 2020, Joanna Bird Gallery, 2019, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, 2018
Nature Moves In, solo show, Pi Artworks in Collaboration with Ruup & Form, September 2019 David Gates: In Conversation, Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, August 2019
A Natural Selection, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2019
Sublime Alchemy, Joanna Bird Gallery, May 2019
Katie Spragg - Glasshouses, solo show Garden Museum, London, July 2018
Katie Spragg Ceramics, solo show Blackwell, The Arts and Crafts House, Bowness-on-Windermere, January 2018 Material Earth II, Messums Wiltshire, Wiltshire, February 2018 British Craft – The Miami Edit, FORM Miami /
The New Craftsmen, Miami / London, December 2017
BCB AWARD show, British Ceramic Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent, September 2017
Landscape of Objects, Forde Abbey, Curated by Flow Gallery, Somerset, September 2017
Young Masters Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition, Cynthia Corbett Gallery at Gallery 8, London, June 2017
Real to Reel, Crafts Council and Britsh Council Film Festival, Touring: inc UK & South Korea, May 2017 - current Spotlight Space with Flow Gallery, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London, February 2017
Future Heritage at Decorex, Syon Park, London, September 2016
Show 16, Royal College of Art, London, June 2016
Paper, Publication, Performance, Lychee One Gallery, London, April 2016
Emerging & Established, Ceramic works by Picasso, Staff and Students from the RCA, Christies, London, February 2016 Fragile in Transit, International Travelling Exhibition, August 2012 - August 2013
Souvenir, Pump House Gallery, London, June 2012
Network2012, Grimmerhus: Denmark’s International Ceramic Museum, April 2012
Designers of the Future, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, June-July 2010

Collections

Garden Museum, Lambeth Wilds, Commissioned 2019
Victoria and Albert Museum, Hedgerow, Purchased 2017
Garden Museum, Daydream, Loaned 2017
Worshipful Company of Tin Makers Alias Wire Workers ‘Company Treasures’, Acquired 2015
Museum of London, Oh! The Jubilee, Souvenir Plate, Acquired 2012

Residencies

Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark, 2012 and Invited Guest Artist 2018
Cove Park, Early Career Residency, Scotland, Upcoming 2017
Forde Abbey, with Flow Gallery and Somerset Art Works, Somerset, Upcoming 2017
Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Scotland, 2016
Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark, 2012
Victoria and Albert Museum, Ceramics Studio, Graduate Residency, London, 2010
Seoul National University, Ceramics Department, South Korea, 2009

Awards and Achievements

Shortlisted for Whitegold international Ceramics Prize, 2019
Shortlisted for Liaigre Prize, Collect, 2018
Shortlisted for British Ceramics Biennale AWARD, 2017
Winner BSAA Young Masters Prize & Highly Commended Young Masters Emerging Women’s Prize, 2017
Charlotte Fraser Award awarded at RCA Ceramics & Glass WIP Show, 2015 and 2016
The Grocers Company Bursary awarded to an RCA Ceramics & Glass student, 2015
Short Listed for V&A’s Studio Ceramics: Early Career UK Makers residency, 2013
June and Sidney Crown Dissertation Prize for Criminality and Clay: An Investigation into Victorian Staffordshire Portrait Figures of Infamous Murderers,  2010
Burt Brill and Cardens Highly Commended Prize for BA Degree show, 2010

Teaching and Public Engagement  

Tutor, Royal College of Art, London, 2017 – Current
Clay for Dementia Artist and Facilitator, Garden Museum, London, 2017 - Current
Visiting Lecturer: University of Brighton, Staffordshire University, Norwich Univeristy of the Arts, ongoing
Plants, Porcelain, People, Arts Council Funded project with Caroline Fisher Projects, Norwich, 2021
Course Validation, University of the Creative Arts, 2019
Lambeth Wilds, Arts Council Funded project with the Garden Museum, 2019
Invited speaker with Collective Matter, NCECA, 2018, CoCa: Restating Clay, 2019, Ceramic Art London, 2019
Education Artist, Camden Arts Centre, London, 2011 – 2019
Tate Exchange Artist with Collective Matter, Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership, London, 2016
Big Draw Artist, Garden Museum, 2017

Education

Royal College of Art, MA Ceramics and Glass, 2014 - 2016
Dissertation: Landscape, A Place for the Imagination

University of Brighton, BA(Hons) 3D Materials Practice, 2007 - 2010
Major in Ceramics and Plastics, First Class Honours

Camberwell College of Art, UAL, Foundation Studies in Art and Design, 2006-2007
Distinction