Getting hold of one of Florian Gadsby’s pots is akin to getting tickets to Glastonbury – if you’re not on the site the moment they go on sale, you’re not getting one. This is what the world-renowned ceramic artist tells me as we sit in one of the offices of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – the location for his first solo show: By My Hands.
‘I’m hoping it will be a less stressful buying experience for people.’ He explains, ‘It’s also a nice way for people to see a potter’s work they’ve admired online for a long time.’ By ‘people’ he means an audience of nearly four million followers and subscribers that watch religiously as he shares behind-the-scenes footage of his processes and craft. What was originally intended to be a way of sharing his work with his family and friends has proved so popular it’s turned him into a social media sensation.
‘Typically, I exist in this online world, where you don’t meet people and you don’t get to see your work in a purpose-built gallery space,’ Gadsby explains as he expresses his excitement about the upcoming show. Available only at YSP, the artist has created a whole new body of work to showcase almost a decade of artistic discovery. It features new and tried-and-tested shapes, angled and simple forms, and beautiful pots coated in iron fired numerous times.
Coinciding with the By My Hands exhibition, Penguin Books is publishing a new book of the same name, in which Gadsby tells the very personal story of his artistic awakening, beginning with his time as a teenager where he found a calling in clay.
It was at a Rudolf Steiner School his teachers discovered his natural talent for three-dimensional art, and a place where, as Gadsby describes, ‘for the first time in my life someone had told me I was good at something.’ From here, he had an intense two years at a pottery school in Ireland where he honed his craft and discovered his love for simple, minimal ceramics. He later became a studio apprentice for Lisa Hammond MBE for three years who arranged for him to do a visiting apprenticeship with Japanese master potter, Ken Matszuaki, in Mashiko, Japan. Not only did he learn how to use the traditional Japanese kick-wheel to make his established shapes, alongside how to glaze in both the oribe and shino style and how to fire them, but he discovered the discipline of running a busy studio, working 80 hours over a six-day week.
As Gadsby explains: ‘this exhibit will show the body of work I’ve developed with all those experiences,’ as well as the skill, creativity and absolute commitment that has led to him becoming the cultural sensation he is today.
Florian Gadsby: By My Hands will run from November 4, 2023 – February 25, 2024, in the YSP Centre and Upper Space
The book will be available to buy from the YSP Shop, as well as an exclusive limited-edition collection of approximately 60 beautiful and affordable angular vases. Glazes in his classic colours of white through to green, they will be marked with the artist’s stamp, which has been specially created for this YSP collaboration. A range of exclusive merchandise, including a canvas tote bag, 2024 calendar and mini prints of Gadsby’s stunning drawings will also be available to buy from YSP Shop, online and in-store.
