Photograph by Helen Cathcart
Celia Dowson is a London based artist working across ceramics and cast glass. Informed by movements in nature, her work reflects the colours, the changing light, and mystery of the natural world.
Within this practice, she explores the interplay between fluidity and form aligning with the transformative qualities of materials. Here she integrates techniques across the two mediums, disrupting traditional technical approaches through the adaptation of tools and processes, often shaping the distinct qualities and movements captured within her work. The finished pieces encompass the study of colour and translucency through gradation and opacity and light. Through these qualities her work creates a contemplative space to reflect upon the rhythms of the atmosphere, and our innate connection to the objects we use and spaces we inhabit.
As well as making work for exhibitions and private collections, Celia works closely with a number of restaurants creating limited edition ceramic and glassware. These include Pétrus by Gordon Ramsay, the Mandarin Oriental Palace in Switzerland and the London Peninsular.
Celia Dowson is a graduate of the Royal College of Art (2018), where she specialised in both ceramics and cast glass. Prior to this she completed her BA Hons. (2014) in Ceramic Design from the University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins. She has received a number of awards including a Bullseye Glass Award (2022), Wallpaper* Design Award (2020), FRANZ Rising Star Award (2019) and the Charlotte Fraser Award (2018). She received the Tom Helme Scholarship from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, in 2017. Dowson exhibits internationally and her work is included in three museum collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Bullseye Projects, USA and The New Taipei City Yingge Ceramic Museum, Taiwan.
Education
2016-2018 Royal College of Art – Ceramic and Glass MA
2011-2014 Central Saint Martins BA (HONS) Ceramic Design
2010-2011 Central Saint Martins - Foundation Diploma
Awards, Honours, Grants
2023 - TG: Transitions in Glass Award, Bullseye Projects
2022 - TG: Transitions in Glass 2nd Place Design Award, Bullseye Projects
2021 - LCN Professional Development Programme, Cockpit Arts
2021 - The Michelangelo Foundation. Selection for the Homo Faber Guide
2020 - Wallpaper* Design Award 2020
2019 - FRANZ Rising Star Award
2018 - Charlotte Fraser Award
2017 - Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, Tom Helme Scholar
2017 - Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers, Tin Prize
Publications & Press
2023 - Elle Decoration ‘Mood of the month’ Styled by Amy Hefferman.
2023 - Elle Decoration Styled by Sania Pell, January
2022 - Elle Decoration, Styled by Sania Pell, January
2021 - Country Life Magazine, Back to Natures Basics, by Jo Rodgers, May Sustainability Issue 2021
2020 - La Casa In Ordine, ‘l paesaggio in un vaso By Marta Santacatterina, 1 July 2020
2020 - Ceramic Review, Cremerging highlights, p.44 Issue 304, July 2020
2020 - Financial Times. From coppers to conkers, A review of Collect 2020 by Dominic Luytens
2020 - The Evening Standard. The fine art of craft, A review of Collect 2020 by Corinne Julius
2020 - Wallpaper* The Design Awards: Best Tinted Love, page 76, Feb 2020, UK
2019 - Seed Magazine, Shifting Tides, pages 54k57, Volume 01, UK
2019 - Christies Real Estate Magazine, Calm Collection, (featuring Rhossili in Soft Fuchsia), Dec
2019 - The Evening Standard Magazine, Interior Edition p39, 30.08.19
Residencies
2023 - The Byre Residency, Caithness with Bullseye Projects
2019 - New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, Yingge, Taiwan (3 months)
2018 - St Paul's Boys School, Ceramic Residency
Museum & Private Collections
2023 - V&A Museum, London
2019 - New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, Yingge, Taiwan.
2019 - Bullseye Projects, Portland, Oregon, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 - ‘Of Water’ with Maud & Mabel, London
2023 - ‘Atmospheres’ Duo Show with Flow Gallery, London
2023 - Collect 2023 with Flow Gallery, Somerset House, London
2022 - The Newcraftsman exhibition with Chloe Rosetta Bell, St Ives, UK
2022 - Gallery Nine, Summer Exhibition, Bath, UK
2022 - The Art of the Exceptional, QEST at Fortnum & Maison, London
2022 - Collect 2022 with Flow Gallery, Somerset House, London
2022 - TG: Transitions in Glass, Bullseye Projects, Bellevue Arts Museum, USA
2021 - Artefact, QEST, Chelsea Design Centre, London
2021 - New Horizons, London Glassblowing, London
2021 - Elemental, Lingwood Samuel Art Gallery, Surrey
2020 - Christmas Exhibition, London Glassblowing, London
2020 - Wales Contemporary, Waterfront Gallery, Wales
2020 - Young Masters, London Glassblowing, London
2020 - Sculptural meets Functional, Maud & Mabel, London
2020 - Moments of Reflection, Flow Gallery, London
2020 - Elements: air water Gallery 57, Arundel
2020 - Collect 2020 with Bullseye Projects, Somerset House, London
2019 - 2nd FRANZ Rising Star Project Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan
2019 - Future Heritage, Decorex International, Olympia, London.
2019 - Inspired, London Glass Blowing, Bermondsey Street, London
2018 - Collect 2019 with Bullseye Projects, Saatchi Gallery, London
2018 - West Bund Art Expo, Shanghai
2018 - China Craft Week 2018, Hangzhou
2018 - Royal College of Art, Ceramics & Glass Postgraduate Show, London
2018 - Exploring Porcelain, Maud & Mabel, London
2018 - Materialise, Private House, Kensington, London
2017 - The Emerging and the Established , Christies, London