Richard Slee
Array, 2012
Glazed ceramic
Hospital Corridor
5th Floor
In Array, Slee has developed a site specific installation of fourteen unique ceramic mountains which graduate from blue to red along the length of the corridor. Slee’s installation works with the idea of a repeated view passing by as the viewer travels along the corridor.
Array refers to a symbolic, Technicolour version of nature with bold colour and uniform outline. However the surfaces take inspiration from Slee’s childhood rock climbing in Cumbria. The surfaces of the mountains are worked with an imprint of aluminium foil and pieces of wood.
About the artist
Richard Slee (b. 1946, Cumbria, UK) studied ceramics at the Central School of Art & Design (1965–70) and later received his MA from the Royal College of Art (1988). Slee is widely regarded as one of Britain’s leading contemporary ceramic artists, known for his work that challenges conventional boundaries within the ceramic medium.
Slee’s work transcends the utilitarian origins of ceramics, merging craft with fine art while critically engaging with the history and decorative traditions of the domestic interior. His sculptures often reference eclectic sources from past histories and contemporary culture, offering new interpretations of symbolic and ornamental forms. By working within ceramics, Slee permanently fixes these moments of meaning, but also acknowledges the fluid and contingent nature of their interpretation.
His significant achievements include receiving the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize in 2001 for his contribution to contemporary ceramics. Slee’s work has been exhibited in leading institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Hayward Gallery, London; Tate St Ives, Cornwall; and internationally at venues like the National Museum, Stockholm, and the Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. His most recent solo exhibition, Richard Slee: Mantlepiece Observations (2021), was held at Bolton Museum, UK. Slee currently lives and works in London.