Artist Spotlight I Adam Buick

Left:
Adam Buick
Large Intertidal Jar, 2023
Stoneware with Waun LLodi clay splash and a Nuka glaze
Height: 68 cm / 2ft 3 in.

Right:
Adam Buick
Massive Intertidal Jar, 2020
Stoneware with Waun LLodi clay splash and a Nuka glaze
Height: 85 cm / 2ft 9 ⅖ in.

Adam Buick uses the form of Korean moon jars as a canvas to engage in an ongoing dialogue with the Welsh landscape and the transience of human endeavour.

Buick uses locally dug clay and stone inclusions which emerge from the smooth porcelain surface. The landscape, to which Buick is so connected, is emotionally and literally laced through his thrown jars. In Massive Intertidal Jar and Large Intertidal Jar, the surface is decorated with splashes of Waun Llodi clay, dug from the moor below Carn Treliwyd that overlooks Adam's studio. Change and metamorphosis are poignant narratives in Buick’s work, as the glazes and firing temperatures allow unpredictable transformations to occur in the same way that the landscape and environment shape us as people.

Paths are a motif that Buick uses to represent his actual and metaphorical journeys through a place, as shown in Journey Jar here at Roche Court.

Pathways through a landscape guide, lead and connect us with time and place, through a common route of experience.

Pictured: Adam Buick
Journey Jar, 2023
Stoneware with inlaid porcelain path, Nuka glaze interior
Height: 68 cm / 2ft 3 in.

on March 4th, Graffeg Books, the major publishing house based in Wales, will release Raw Earth, a significant publication offering a profound consideration on Adam Buick's work and its relationship between people, place and time.

Buick’s work is currently on display at the V&A, London until September 2025, as part of British Studio Pottery and the V&A. A solo exhibition of Adam Buick’s ceramics will open at Contemporary Ceramics, London on March 6th.

Adam Buick
Strata Jar, 2023
Stoneware with sgraffito and a white glaze
Height: 67 cm / 2ft 2 in.

Adam Buick received a BA joint Honours in archaeology and anthropology at Lampeter University in 2001, before studying at the West Wales School of Art in Carmarthen (2003) and the Crafts Council of Ireland Ceramics Design and Skills Course (2004-2006). He has since received numerous awards for his work including the Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales (2017), the Jerwood Maker Open (2013) and Ceramic Review Award (2013). Adam Buick has exhibited internationally. Selected solo and group shows include Grounding, Ruthin Crafts Centre, Wales (2023), Atavism, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2019); Things of Beauty Growing, at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2018) and the Yale Center for British Art (2017); Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London and Ceramic Art London, RCA (2012). Adam Buick lives and works in Llanferran, Wales.

Adam Buick’s work is held in numerous major public and private collections, including the British Museum; Crafts Council UK; Chatsworth House; Hepworth Wakefield Museum; Ceramic Review Award; The National Museum, Cardiff; The British Academy and the Arts Council of Wales.

Adam Buick
Massive Intertidal Jar, 2020
Stoneware with Waun LLodi clay splash and a Nuka glaze
Height: 85 cm / 2ft 9 ⅖ in.