A major figure in contemporary British ceramics, Jennifer Lee is acclaimed for her quietly rhythmic hand-built vessels. Lee attended the Edinburgh College of Arts in the 1970s, studying ceramics and tapestry-making. Her practice is an exploratory one; Lee allows her oxides and clays to age, sometimes for over a decade, before mixing them together to form and fire the material into a vessel or bowl.

Although this process celebrates experimental spontaneity, the resulting works are striking for their self-containment and balance, appearing to us as perfectly preserved artifacts discovered during an excavation. Lee hand-builds her pots, using various oxides to create layers that are evocative of geological strata. This effect is especially salient in the present offering of her work. The passing of time is critical to Lee, who deftly handles the natural processes of decay and erosion. Internationally acclaimed, Lee’s works are held in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, among others.