RESEARCH & OUTPUTS
Farnham: An exhibition celebrating the legacy of ceramics at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. Oxford Ceramics Gallery March 2021.
As senior lecturer in ceramics at UCA, Howard’s work featured in this exhibition and formed the cover design for the catalogue.
Over the last few years, I have become increasingly interested in Farnham and its rich history of producing ceramics, in particular Farnham Art School and the colleges which followed. This exhibition has given me the chance to highlight a 'golden era' of ceramics - a snapshot of pioneering teachers and pupils that I think need to be recognised. I would like to thank those who have shared experiences and stories from their time in Farnham.
James Fordham, Director of Oxford Ceramics Gallery
Full Catalogue: FARNHAM
Meditations
In exhibiting this latest series of pots in Guildford Cathedral, Ashley Howard is both expressing and inviting meditations, whereby the acts of making become reflected in the acts of visual encounter. In a setting that emphasises tranquillity, is rooted yet expansive, ‘the present and the absent, the near and the distant, the sensed and the imagined fuse together’ (Pallasmaa, 2005: 45). - Adrian Bland 2018
Pallasmaa, Juani (2005) The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Full Catalogue: MEDITATIONS 2018
Material symphysis
Universities, throughout the world, are keen to celebrate the achievements of their students. Material Symphysis sets out to examine a more constant and less transient aspect to Higher Education establishments, its staff. It is from the staff that styles and schools of thought stem and futures subsequently shaped. Links between the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA) have been forged as a result of their prominence in the field of crafts. - Ashley Howard
Full Catalogue: Material Symphysis
Potters on Pots: Ceramic Review, September/October 2022
Ashley Howard shares the influences that have shaped his practice and in particular the impact Colin Pearson has had on his approach to clay
Full Article: Ceramic Review 2022
International society for ceramic art education and exchange: ISCAEE 2017
The International Society for Ceramic Art Education and Exchange (ISCAEE) is a unique consortium of under and post graduate ceramics courses from around the world. Every two years a member country hosts a symposium to celebrate ceramics and current thinking surrounding the subject. Crucial to ISCAEE’s ethos is the student experience. ISCAEE symposia see staff from member institutes bringing students together to speak, exhibit and demonstrate on a level platform. ISCAEE 2017 was hosted by Ashley Howard at UCA Farnham. The theme was Interpreting History. To celebrate the UK’s involvement in ISCAEE keynote speakers and demonstrators were invited. The speakers were Clare Twomey, Steve Brown and Martina Margetts. The demonstrators were Margaret O’ Rourke, Steve Brown and Dylan Bowen. This project formed part of Howard’s continuing involvement in ISCAEE through which he exhibits, lectures and demonstrates around the world.
Full Catalogue: ISCAEE 2017
SHIMA KARA SHIMA E : From ISLAND TO ISLAND
A Collaboration between Ashley Howard and Risa Ohgi
. . .this new work, which Howard has thrown and Ohgi has decorated, stands apart, within its own strength – as if created by a single artist. Collaboration at its best. - Bonnie Kemske 2014
Full Catalogue: Shima Kara Shima E
Intimate humantiy
Ashley Howard reveals the language of drawing for Magdalene Odundo.
In this paper Ashley Howard discusses the drawing of Magdalene Odundo and how this relates to her practice of creating new ceramic vessels. The paper draws on the work of contemporary US writers and commentators like Richard Sennett and Mathew Crawford who argue the case for the intimacy of human involvement.
Full Article: 2011 Ceramic Review
ritual and setting
The presentation of a sequence of clay fonts on the floor of the Retrochoir in Winchester Cathedral marks Ashley Howard’s most courageous and physically demanding artistic project yet, and a very rare opportunity for audiences to engage with contemporary ceramics in new ways in this particular setting. - Amanda Fielding
Review: Gareth Mason
Catalogue: Ritual and Setting
FULL CIRCLE 2004
Touring Exhibition of ceramics by Ashley Howard and Martin Lungley.
There is a pattern in the working lives of the two ceramicists Ashley Howard and Martin Lungley that recalls one of the chief characteristics of Thomas Hardy’s epic novels, which is the way the lives of the main characters interact. In an elegant narrative Hardy’s heroes meet and part, crossing and uncrossing, responding to various forces and pressures, but always finding themselves pursuing their own ideas and intentions – lives in parallel. Emmanuel Cooper.
Article: Alison Britton, Ceramic Review 2004 - Dead Ends and Possibilities: The work of Martin Lungley and Ashley Howard prompts Alison Britton to reconsider the role of the wheel in contemporary studio pottery.
Catalogue: Full Circle
Altered States
Ashley Howard investigates the complex language of the thrown and altered vessel.
Article: Altered States, Ashley Howard, Ceramic Review 2004
searching and finding
Ashley Howard admires Kyra Cane’s new pots.
Article: Searching and Finding, Ashley Howard, Ceramic Review 2001