Stem cup: C.3-2004

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given

Note

Text from object entry in A. Game (2016) ‘Contemporary British Crafts: The Goodison Gift to the Fitzwilliam Museum’. London: Philip Wilson Publishers: Frances Priest studied Ceramics at Edinburgh College of Art before establishing her studio in Edinburgh in 1999. She gained early acclaim for a series of slip-cast bone china forms, ‘drawings in three dimensions’, in which simple white geometric elements were incised with dark lines echoing the linear abstractions of earlier British artists such as Ben Nicholson (1894–1982). Priest attributes her interest in drawing on clay to her Foundation course tutor, the potter David Roberts. Her shift from slip-casting to making larger slab-built forms is illustrated in this work, which marked a move towards a series of dynamic paired sculptures that developed out of the artist’s interest in dance and movement, as well as drawing as a way of creating spatial relationships. Drawing continues to be a fundamental part of Priest’s practice and is seen not only in studio works, but through her increasingly important work as a leader of workshops and site-specific artist residencies that use drawing as a means through which to develop relationships between people in specific geographical and social contexts. She has exhibited widely, working on projects ranging from collaborations with the National Galleries of Scotland to Yorkshire Art Space. A recent project with Atlas Arts, Patterns of Flora, Mapping Seven Raasay Habitats was nominated for a major Arts in Business Award (2015–16).