Wednesday 19th July 2023, 6 pm

Please join us on the exhibition closing night  for a talk and tour of the house and garden.
An evening not to be missed!

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

Suggested donation of £5 towards the Joanna Bird Foundation.

RSVP is essential for all events.

Wednesday 28th June 2023, 6.30 – 8.00pm

Please join us for a conversation with ceramicist William Plumptre.

Following his ceramic design studies at Chelsea College of Art, William Plumptre travelled to Japan where he learned with the Japanese National Treasure, Tatsuzō Shimaoka. He returned to England and established his first pottery in 1987, and since 1994 Plumptre has been working from his studio in the Lake District.

Work by William is on view as part of our current exhibition, Rites of Passage, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

Suggested donation of £15 towards the Joanna Bird Foundation.

RSVP is essential for all events.

Wednesday 21st June 2023, 6.30 – 8.00pm

Please join us for an artist talk, featuring Akiko Hirai and Gregory Warren Wilson.

Akiko makes a variety of wares, drawing from the Japanese tradition of allowing the clay to influence her in how she decorates and fires her work. The interaction between object and viewer enables the viewer to discover the language of her practice in their own way. Her unique approach to ceramics has been highly acclaimed, her work is much in demand internationally.

Gregory Warren Wilson is an artist and prize-winning poet. His work in glass plays with the translucent nature of the material, using multiple layers of hand-cut sections glass and tesserae to allow light to interact with the colours spatially. His designs sometimes take as their starting point a fragment of poetry, resulting in a glasswork that exists in its own right while alluding to the original literary source.

Works by Akiko and Gregory are on view as part of our current exhibition, Rites of Passage, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com.

Suggested donation of £15 towards the Joanna Bird Foundation.

RSVP is essential for all events.

Wednesday 14th June 2023, 6.30 – 8.00pm

Please join us for our first talk of our latest exhibition, Rites of Passage, featuring Julian Stair, Carina Ciscato and Matthew Warner in conversation.

Julian Stair OBE is an English potter and historian who works in London, and studied at Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art. His work ranges from modest homeware to monumental vessels, but retains his unique modernist style throughout. Julian’s essays have been published by the Courtauld Institute, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Tate Gallery and the Yale Centre for British Art.

Carina Ciscato is a Brazilian potter from São Paulo, who moved to South London in September 1999, where she worked in the studio of Julian Stair and Edmund de Waal. Her work captures the fluidity of clay as she masterfully alters and re-assembles the thrown forms with a natural sense of balance, form and material.

Matthew Warner completed his BA at Camberwell College of Art in 2010. He went on to study under Julian Stair and now works from his studio in South East London. He takes inspiration from the work of the 18th century potter, Josiah Wedgwood, and from historic cultural research.

Works by Carina and Matthew are on view as part of our latest exhibition, Rites of Passage, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

Suggested donation of £15 towards the Joanna Bird Foundation.

RSVP is essential for all events.

Monday, 5th December 2022, 6.00 – 8.00pm

Please join us for our final talk of 2022, featuring artist Lucille Lewin and curator Preston Fitzgerald in conversation with Joanna Bird.

Lucille Lewin is an artist from South Africa, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2017. Her work focuses on fine porcelain elements which are fractured metaphors for human experience through time.

Preston Fitzgerald is a curator of contemporary ceramics as well as a collector of contemporary crafts. He curates an annual exhibition of ceramics and glass with students from the MA course at the Royal College of Art, and also serves as a judge of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize.

Work by Lucille is on view as part of our autumn exhibition, Point of Balance, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

Thursday, 1st December 2022, 6.00 – 8.00pm

We are very pleased to announce our upcoming Evening Event in association with the Joanna Bird Foundation, with glass artists Dawn Bendick and Gregory Warren Wilson in conversation with Joanna. Join us for an evening of discussion and insight into these outstanding artists and their practice.

Dawn Bendick is an artist working with time, light and multitone glass based in the UK. Her project titled ‘Time Over Time’ considers how the changing properties of a material can signal the passage of time. Using a combination of natural and artificial lights to tap into our peripheral senses, Dawn questions how we can bring awareness to the change in seasons, atmospheric light and weather.

Gregory Warren Wilson is an artist and prize-winning poet. His work in glass plays with the translucent nature of the material, using multiple layers of hand-cut tesserae to allow light to interact with the glass spatially. His designs sometimes take as their starting point a fragment of poetry, resulting in a glasswork that exists in its own right while alluding to the original literary source.

Work by Dawn and Gregory is on view as part of our autumn exhibition, Point of Balance, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

Saturday, 19th November 2022, 11.00am – 1.00pm

We are delighted to invite you to brunch at our Chiswick gallery with acclaimed potter Florian Gadsby. This is a unique opportunity to meet and chat to one of our outstanding artists about his work and philosophy. Gaining insight into Florian’s practice as a potter while enjoying breakfast treats will be a Saturday morning well spent!

Florian Gadsby is a ceramicist working in North London. Having apprenticed with Lisa Hammond at Maze Hill Pottery for three years, Florian went on to work with Ken Matsuzaki in Mashiko, Japan, for six months. There he learnt how to use the traditional Japanese kick-wheel to make his established shapes, as well as how to glaze and fire in both the oribe and shino styles.

To book a ticket for brunch with Florian, please click here.

Work by Florian is on view as part of our autumn exhibition, Point of Balance, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

Tuesday, 8th November 2022, 6.00 – 8.00pm

We are pleased to announce our upcoming Evening Event in association with the Joanna Bird Foundation: an illustrated talk by artist and sculptor Halima Cassell MBE, FRSS. Known for her dynamic geometric motifs, which she carves into clay and later fires or casts, Halima’s work is largely inspired by her Pakistani heritage, her fascination with African patterns, and her knowledge of Islamic architectural principles. Join us for the exciting opportunity to hear Halima speak about her work and process.

Work by Halima is on view as part of our autumn exhibition, Point of Balance, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

All talks begin at 6.30pm. Canapés and wine will be served.

Entry donations welcome.

13th July 2022, Wednesday 6.00 – 8.00pm

We are pleased to announce our upcoming Evening Event in association with the Joanna Bird Foundation, with artists Francis Lloyd-Jones and Karen Bunting in conversation with Joanna. Join us for a rare opportunity to hear son of potter David Lloyd-Jones speak about his beautiful soda glazing in the company of Karen, who has know him for many years

Work by Karen and Franics is on view as part of our summer exhibition, The Sunlight on the Garden, in our Chiswick gallery and on our website.

For more information, call us on 020-8995-9960 or email info@joannabird.com

We are delighted to be presenting work by Morgan Edwards, Steffan Lomax and Imogen Long – BA Graduates in Stone Carving from City & Guilds London Art School as part of our summer exhibition, The Sunlight on the Garden, from Tuesday 5th July.

Please join us for a welcoming Evening Event, in association with the Joanna Bird Foundation, on Wednesday 6th July, 6.00 – 8.00pm. The graduates will be attending and there will be a Q&A session at 7.00pm. Please RSVP if you would like to attend. All donations for the Joanna Bird Foundation are welcomed.

Tuesday 14th December, 6.00 – 8.00pm, at the Chiswick Gallery. This event is held in association with the Joanna Bird Foundation.

Please join us for our last talk of 2021 with Kate Windibank and Nina Bilbey, ‘Material is the Heart of it’. This will be a special discussion between two artists working in different materials, but finding commonality in thinking and approach.

Ceramicist Kate Windibank is inspired by concepts of geological formation, erosion and the transformational nature of time.

Stone carver Nina Bilbey comes from family of Master Craftsmen. Her work respects the nature and practical limitations of her chosen material, stone.

RSVP is essential. Mulled wine and light refreshments will be served.

We do not charge for these evening events, however a donation to the Joanna Bird Foundation is always much appreciated.

Wednesday 1st December 2021, 6.00pm, at the Chiswick Gallery. In association with the Joanna Bird Foundation.

We are delighted to host a talk by Chris Keenan as part of our evening events for Jeu d’esprit, our winter exhibition this year.

Chris began his career as an actor before becoming Edmund de Waal’s first apprentice in 1995 and has worked from his London studio since 1998. His work is often glazed using deceptively simple combinations of tenmoku and deep celadon, to great effect. The V&A, London, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan have all acquired his work.

We do not charge for these evening events, however a donation to the Joanna Bird Foundation is always much appreciated.

We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery.

Wednesday 11th August, 6.00pm, at the Chiswick Gallery. This event is held in association with the Joanna Bird Foundation.

Joanna Bird will discuss with Karen Bunting and Carina Ciscato their individual practices, their ideas on form and the role of decoration in their work.

Mainly self-taught, Karen Bunting makes functional pottery, working in reduction fired stoneware. Each piece is first thrown or hand-built, then individually worked and decorated with stripes, spots and cross-hatching to enhance aspects of each form. The reduction firing generates muted colours, often marked out with darker lines of patterning, producing a stillness and sobriety which Karen has expressed as a quality she is drawn to.

Working primarily in porcelain, Carina Ciscato is a Brazilian potter based in London (since 1999). She creates pots with a natural sense of balance through the process of throwing, de-constructing and re-assembling. The sense of fluidity in her work is further heightened through her masterful application of quiet and muted tones of body and glazes. 

RSVP here

Wednesday 28th July, 6.30pm, at the Chiswick Gallery. In association with the Joanna Bird Foundation.

Akiko Hirai and Jason Collingwood discuss their respective work and how their different practices interact.

Akiko makes practical ware using the Japanese tradition of allowing the clay to show how it wants to be fired itself. Focusing on the interaction between the objects and the viewers, her work enables the viewer to find out the language of the objects in their own way. Her work and unique approach to ceramic work have had much high praise and her work is becoming more in demand from her commissions worldwide.

With over 30 years experience as a professional rug weaver Jason has produced thousands of rugs for hundreds of international private and corporate clients. Working closely with architects, interior designers and fashion houses, Jason Collingwood designs and weaves all the rugs himself. In addition to the weaving Jason passes on his skills by teaching extensively in North America, Europe and Australia.

RSVP here

Wednesday 14th July, 6.00pm and 7.30pm, at the Chiswick Gallery. In association with the Joanna Bird Foundation and the Great Dixter Charitable Trust.

Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener at Great Dixter, has generously offered a selection of specialist plants, which have been planted in the Gallery’s beautiful garden. Tools, hurdles and benches from Great Dixter will also be exhibited; these are made entirely from wood grown in the surrounding woodlands. We are pleased to announce that on July 14th Fergus will be presenting two lectures at the Joanna Bird Gallery, entitled ‘Designing with Plants the Great Dixter Way’. The first at 6:00 p.m. and the second at 7.30 p.m.

Wine and light refreshments will be served.

All proceeds go to the Joanna Bird Foundation and the Great Dixter Charitable Trust.

Purchase your tickets here