TESSA EASTMAN

Born 1984, UK

Tessa Eastman works by hand in clay, using multiple techniques to create complex ceramic structures. Time is devoted to achieving rich glazed surfaces. Her pieces are characterised by a curious, often playful ambiguity, frequently inspired by microscopic structural details found in the natural world. Fixing ungraspable, transformative, and natural states of growth is crucial to her aesthetic. The strange otherworldliness seen in the natural world transports her away from the mundane, and it is her intention to make a fixed ceramic form seem alive. She strives to evoke awareness of life’s impermanence.

Eastman graduated from University of Westminster in 2006 with a BA in Ceramics, and MA in Ceramics and Glass from Royal College of Art in 2015. She won the Craft Emergency Award, with an exhibition at Aspex Gallery Portsmouth, in 2016. She has also exhibited at the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, Korea; Puls Contemporary Ceramics, Puls Gallery, Brussels; and British Ceramics Biennial: Fresh, Spode Factory, Stoke-on-Trent. Eastman was shortlisted for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2017.

Tessa Eastman

YOUNG MASTERS AT COLLECT 2020