Staff profiles

 

Duncan Ayscough

Peter Castle

Dr Natasha Mayo

Claire Curneen

Ingrid Murphy

Caroline Taylor

Dr Jeffrey Jones

Pauline Monkcom

Glyn Tilley

 

Ingrid Murphy

Programme Leader

BA Ceramics

Email: imurphy@uwic.ac.uk

 

In 1990 Ingrid Murphy graduated from Crawford School of Art and Design, Cork, in 1992 she completed her MA in Ceramics at Cardiff. Since graduating she has pursued a career in education and practice. A new member to the Ceramics team Ingrid was previously BA Ceramics Degree Course Leader in Carmarthen.

Ingrid’s own practice explores the perception of space through the use of trompe l’oeil and perspectival devices. Initially selected for the first Contemporary Ceraics show at the V&A, Ingrid’s work is now nationally and internationally exhibited and she has won both the Glamorgan University Purchase Prize for Ceramics and the Fete Picasso ‘Prix Select’ in Vallauris, France.

Ingrid has been an invited speaker at many symposia and conferences, and was the Master of Ceremonies at the recent International Ceramics Festival at Aberystwyth. Ingrid has also undertaken research trips to South Africa and Zimbabwe as a Wales Arts International delegate.

 

 

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Duncan Ayscough

 

Duncan Ayscough graduated in 1990 with BA (Hons) in three-dimensional Design from Manchester Metropolitan University, and in 1994 with MA Ceramics from Cardiff. Awarded a William De Morgan Fellowship in 1994, Duncan used the opportunity this provided, to investigate terra-sigilatta surfaces and used the findings from this research to underpin his practice as an artist/maker.

More recently, he has intensified his engagement with wheel, exploring the interrelationship of form and surfaces selectively exposured to carbonisation, and the ways these surfaces may be further enriched with naturally occurring waxes, and application of precious metals. Selected for both first and second Ceramic Contemporaries Exhibitions in the mid 1990s, Duncan currently exhibits widely across the UK and is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain.

 

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Peter Castle

Course Director/MA Ceramics

Email: pcastle@uwic.ac.uk

 

Since graduating in 1972 with a BA (Hons) Degree in Ceramics, Peter Castle has practiced through the medium of both ceramics and print, time, engaging increasingly with the development of imagery through exploiting innovative combinations of ceramic and print materials and processes. This involves manipulation of imagery through both hand and mechanical or electronic processes, including CAD/ CAM, with the imagery further developed through the process of firing.

In his role as an academic, he has taught ceramics at all levels from undergraduate to the supervision of postgraduate research degree students, delivered papers at conferences and held workshops on the subject of ceramic print, both in the UK and N. America. Responsibilities within the Centre includes the Course Directorship for MA Ceramics Programme, tutor for the BA (Hons) Ceramics and a supervisor for M.Phil/ PhD research degree students.

 

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Claire Curneen

Senior Lecturer

Email: ccurneen@uwic.ac.uk

 

Since graduating with MA Ceramics in 1992, Claire Curneen has pursued within her artworks, themes of selfless sacrifice, transcendence, purpose and platonic love weave through these pieces like a complex leitmotif, shifting and changing according to subject and form (Hughes, Philip, Director, Ruthin Craft Centre).

She is now established as one of Europeís major artists working with the figure through the medium of ceramics, and selected for key exhibitions world wide: including the 52nd International Competition for Ceramic Art at Faenza, Italy and the 2001 Prix deí AMN. Her work also features extensively in recent books and journals and pieces are held in eminent international collections, including the V&A.

Whilst she is one of the new generation of artists, her contribution to the field has already been recognised through her election to the International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva.

 

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Dr Jeffrey Jones

Research Fellow

Email: jcjones@uwic.ac.uk

 

Having trained as a practitioner in both Fine Art and Ceramics before undertaking doctoral studies focussing upon the history of studio pottery, and progressing to current position, where he conducts post-doctoral research in the history of ceramics, he is ideally placed to investigate the relationship between ceramics practice and theory.

He is a founder editor of the electronic journal Interpreting Ceramics and has played a leading role in the development of the Researching Ceramics Online Database. He regularly presents papers at academic conferences and is currently writing a book on studio pottery in Britain, to be published by A & C Black. He is also the lead organiser of the Fragmented Figure, www.fragmentedfigure.net Responsibilities within the Centre the conduct of post-doctoral research, lectures and seminar with students on both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

 

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Dr Natasha Mayo

Lecturer

Email: nmayo@uwic.ac.uk

 

Educated first as a BA (Hons) Fine Art painting student in Canterbury, Natasha Mayo then qualified and taught as a secondary school teacher before returning to higher education as an MA student. Following completion of her MA Ceramics studies in Cardiff, she embarked on practice-led PhD studies within the Centre, funded by AHRB. Through her research, she investigated the ways in which the surface and form of the human body in figurative ceramic sculpture can be manipulated to suggest sensations and emotions experienced in relation to flesh and skin.

She was instrumental in establishing the Zelli Porcelain Prize and was awarded the first prize in 2002. In addition to delivering papers at key conferences, she also edited Issue 56 of Ceramics in Society www.ceramic-society.co.uk on the subject of contemporary figurative ceramics. She is currently co-curating the Fragmented Figure Exhibition, www.fragmentedfigure.net

 

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Pauline Monkcom

Technical Demonstrator

Email: pmonkcom@uwic.ac.uk

 

Graduating with MA Ceramics in 1986, Pauline Monkcom started to practice immediately as an artist/maker, focussing on the development of lustre-fired wheel-based forms. Pauline exhibits her work extensively both in the UK and abroad and her pieces feature in a number of publications and museum collections, including the National Museums and Galleries of Wales. She also undertakes commissions for public organisations, for example, the National Trust and the NMGW.

In recognition of her work and standing as a artsist/maker in the UK, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1998, to study architectural ceramics (and lusterware in particular), in both Spain and Portugal. More recently (2001), she completed an artist in residency, at the Rufford Crafts Centre, Notts.

 

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Caroline Taylor

Technical Demonstrator

Email: chtaylor@uwic.ac.uk

 

Caroline Taylor graduated with MA Ceramics in 1994 and started to practice and exhibit immediately. She comments through her work on ethically issues associated with the ways meat is ìpackagedî as food, particularly in supermarkets, to detach it from any connection with the creatures from which the meat is derived.

Her work has been shown extensively across the UK, including the V&A (Ceramic Contemporaries, 1996), when she was a prizewinner, as well as a key exhibitor in Hot Off The Press 1997 (Crafts Council). To achieve the level of authority or authenticity of her images, Caroline makes innovative and skilful use of industrial processes, including mouldmaking and printing. Her work features in a number of recent books and journals.

 

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Glyn Tilley

Senior Technician

 

Glyn Tilly is fully qualified and highly experienced electrical technician, who until taking up the post in the Centre, was the key installer of kilns and trouble-shooter, for a major kilns and ceramic materials agent. Thus he brings to the Centre, considerable experience and expertise in regard to the construction, maintenance and firing of kilns, with a particular specialism in temperature control systems. He also oversees the maintenance of all of the Centre's mechanical equipment: throwing wheels, pugmills etc.

He still acts as a consultant for practitioners and is able to provide advice and guidance on the purchase of kilns, throwing wheels and materials, to those students intending to set up in practice or teach after graduation.

 

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