9 February 2022

Review of Jade Montserrat group exhibition l Oyin Akande for Wallpaper

The body remembers, and so does clay. A new exhibition at Two Temple Place titled ‘Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art’ looks back at 70 years to recover lost histories of work by Black, female ceramic artists and potters.

Curated by Jareh Das, the London art exhibition brings together eight artists and over 80 works of ceramics, preparatory drawings, film and archival material, which explore post-colonialism, gender and class. Undoubtedly concerned with history, ethnography, lineage and legacy, the exhibition is rooted in the foundations of modernism in Nigeria and begins with one seminal and celebrated figure: Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali.

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Das curates a poetic, if unacknowledged, line from Kwali to some notable female ceramic artists of today. From the much-celebrated Magdalene Odundo – who studied directly under Kwali and her contemporaries at the Pottery Training Center in Abuja – to the work of Phoebe Collings-James, Shawanda Corbett, Chinasa Vivian Ezugha, Jade Montserrat, Bisila Noha and Julia Phillips.

Review by Oyin Akande

Read the full article through this link.