Olivia Walker (previously) creates highly tactile unglazed ceramic vessels using a unique layering technique that edges her pieces with organic ridged “growths”. The U.K.-based artist fell in love with ceramics by chance: after completing her undergraduate degree she took a summer job at a craft gallery. Immediately drawn to the ceramics at the shop, Walker enrolled in an evening course and ultimately completed a master’s degree in Contemporary Ceramics. These days, with her summer job far behind her, Walker’s work is exhibited in galleries around the world. Her ceramics have been shown in Melbourne Design Week at the National Gallery of Victoria and at Hauser & Wirth’s opening of a new contemporary craft space. In 2018, she also traveled to Denmark as an artist in residence at the Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre.
Walker’s aesthetic, which balances refinement with physicality, pairs perfectly with Squarespace’s clean, minimal templates. “All of my pieces start by being thrown on the wheel, before being built-upon with thousands of individually-applied fragments of porcelain, that work together to create an organic texture that eats into or grows over the original form,” Walker explains. She uses only natural porcelain with hand-mixed oxides for color to highlight the nuanced details of each piece’s textural exterior. “The minimal palette and simplicity that I aim for in my work has been easy to echo in my website through using the Squarespace platform,” says Walker. “I was looking to create a simple and clean website that showcased my work and background, and in particular that displayed my photographs in a visually impactful way.”
It is a great time to be working in the contemporary craft world, according to Walker. “There are so many opportunities for makers and a renewed interest in craft from the general public. Working with natural materials is inherently human and in the digital world we live in these materials provide something tactile and physical for people to connect to, whether that be through making, collecting or following the journey of different craftspeople.” By prominently featuring social links and a newsletter sign-up on her Squarespace site, Walker keeps a seamless flow between all her marketing outlets to allow curators, art appreciators, and collectors to find her work wherever they prefer.
If you’ve been looking for the perfect match for your creative identity, try Squarespace free for one week. When you’re ready to launch your art practice, brand, or business, use code COLOSSAL to save 10% on a website or domain name.
Photo: Michael Harvey
Photo: Lucas Amillano
Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Photo: Lucas Amillano
This post was sponsored by Squarespace.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/09/olivia-walker-squarespace/