London-based ceramic artist Abigail Schama came to pottery from painting, having studied Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts and Bristol and completing an MA in Art Theory at Chelsea College of Arts. She trained under Loewe Craft Prize finalist Akiko Hirai, who introduced her to the beauty of functionality, and now lives and works in London, where she founded The Mews Coachworks, a female makers community in North West London.
Influenced by artists such as Rembrandt and Twombly, as well as Ancient Greek and Japanese vessels, Schama reinterprets historical forms as motifs - often rendering them unfamiliar and anthropomorphic - drawing inspiration from Greek mythology while exploring the creative tension between functionality and dysfunctionality. Her works are wheel-thrown in combinations of dark and light stoneware with experimental dolomite and transparent glazes, sometimes further fired and lightly gilded with gold lustre, with each piece retaining the marks and rhythms of its making.
