Chris Turrell

Christopher Turrell is a British ceramicist who intertwines figuration, text, and symbolism honoring queer identity and memory on organic stoneware sculptures. His illustrative surfaces reflect the influence of radical gay artists such as filmmaker Derek Jarman and the poetry of Walt Whitman and Wilfred Owen. The artist builds his vessels and abstract forms using a coil technique and achieves richly textured surfaces through sgraffito, mono printing, relief decoration, stamped and hand-painted images, as well as a process of sanding down the built layers. Turrell employs unconventional materials of watercolor, gold leaf inlay, and beeswax that expand the expressive possibilities of his medium.

Turrell completed his BA at the University of Brighton. He has exhibited his work in group exhibitions in London and abroad, and in 2018 was awarded a Selected Membership of the Craft Potters Association. He lives and works in Liverpool.