Ella Porter has a multidisciplinary practice, which explores interchangeable material languages and processes between ceramics and print.
Ella Porter grew up in London and completed her Foundation Diploma, specialising in Drawing, at Camberwell College of Art, in 2011. She then went on to study for a BA degree in Painting and Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2014. Following her BA and the GSA fire of 2014, she was awarded a Phoenix Bursary and received the NL Culture prize, for which she produced a solo exhibition. Ella went on to set up a studio in London and began working with clay which led to her Diploma in Ceramics at the CityLit, 2017. In 2021 she completed her MA at The Royal College of Art, which was supported by The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust.
Statement
'I am drawn to clay’s unique ability to preserve the act of making, as both conscious and unconscious moments of touch are held in the surface of the ceramic object.
My practice displays a strong relationship between surface and form, informed by a BA in painting and printmaking. As I explore ideas surrounding the mark of the maker, temporality, trace and place, I refer to a range of historic ceramic artefacts, as well as writing on social and painting theory.
Throughout the making of a work there is a continual shift between layering and erasing: a conversation with the material. I make careful and subtle interventions at strategic points during the mutable states of the clay. By visually scanning the surface of an evolving work, I read impressions it may have picked up. These impressions directly inform the conscious actions I impose on the material.
The end point of a work is not defined by firing the clay, as I continue to alter the surface once the object is fixed as ceramic. I sense the conclusion of a work when I reach a place of wanting to hold onto what is left - a sense of something pre-existing revealing itself.'
EDUCATION
2019-2021 Royal College of Art – Ceramics & Glass – Masters in Arts and Humanities
2018 City Lit –Jewellery III
2015-2017 City Lit – Diploma of Ceramics
2014 Chelsea College of Art – Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice – short course
2011-2014 Glasgow School of Art – Bachelor (Honours) of Art in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking
2010-2011 Camberwell College of Arts –Foundation Diploma in Art and Design – Drawing Specialism
EXHIBITIONS
2022 Artefact Maker Trail – Design Centre Chelsea Harbour (London) – May 2022
2021 MA Ceramics & Glass – Royal College of Art – Cromwell Place (London) December 2021
2021 The Ingram Prize – Unit 1 Gallery Workshop (London) November 2021
2021 Cabinet of Curiosities –The Power of Material: From Virtual to Physical – The Design Museum (London)
2021 Sketch – Hosted by Preston Fitzgerald (London)
2021 Royal College of Art Online Show
2020 Winter Exhibition Online – Thrown Contemporary
2019 WIP show | Royal College of Art (London)
2019 Glasgow Drawing Club – Chelsea College of Art (London)
2019 The Pottery House (Norfolk)
2017 Ceramics Diploma Show – Candid Arts Trust (London)
2016 Pause II Play – Bargain Studio (St. Leonards-by-Sea)
2015 GSA Graduate Degree Show – Phoenix Bursary (Glasgow)
2015 Shades of Yellow – Embassy Tea Gallery (London)
2014 Feeling is Seeing/Seeing is Feeling – Culture NL (Glasgow)
2014 Plinth – This is The Plinth (Glasgow)
2014 GSA Fine Art BA Degree Show – Showcase (Glasgow)
AWARDS
2020
– Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust | 2020 QEST PF Charitable Trust Scholar – Ceramics
– The Worshipful Company of Tinplate Workers alias Wire workers – Tin Project – Runner up prize winner for the most imaginative and innovative use of tin plate
2015 – Culture NL – funded Exhibition
2014 – Phoenix Bursary Award