ARTIST STATEMENT

Lisa Allan’s work is a creative analysis of ceramic material culture, exploring processes of alteration, renewal and transformation.

Ceramic heritage is the raw material she interrogates and the inspirational source in generating new work. Vintage objects of accumulated decorative ceramic have undergone a reconsideration and their intention has been changed from domestic display to public stage.

The origins, journeys and destinies of everyday domestic decorative objects are considered in her work. Once treasured, now devalued in fragments or shards, transitioning towards landfill and a new incarnation, they are reflective snapshots of a world in continual fluctuation captured at this moment in time.

Charged with conflicting narratives, the contemporary meaning of these decorative ornaments are fused with their past histories. Objects once vital to the livelihoods of their makers, invested with sentiment by their collectors, now damaged and diminished, yet suffused with these lingering remembrances.

Deposits of social history, these whimsical ceramics contain the flux of perpetual change. In considering this moment of transition, in gathering up the pieces, the work glimpses a moment of social history through the journeys of decorative figurines. Small, enduring ceramic symbols of passing mores, wistful markers of time and change.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

EDUCATION

2019-2020 Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, Ulster University, Belfast

2012-2019 BA with First Class Honours in Contemporary Applied Art, Ulster University

2010-2012 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Distinction SERC, Bangor  

AWARDS

2019 Fresh Award, British Ceramics Biennial Stoke on Trent

2019 Royal Ulster Academy Award for Outstanding Students 

2016/17 Dean’s List Award for Academic Achievement, Ulster University

2015 Richard K. Degenhardt Belleek Collectors’ Scholarship Award for Ceramics

2014/15   Dean’s List Award for Academic Achievement, Ulster University

2012 South Eastern Regional College Award for Outstanding Achievement

EXHIBITIONS

2-3/2021 Love Art Buy Art Exhibition, The Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

10-1/2020 Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Invited Artist, Ulster Museum

09-10/2019 British Ceramics Biennial Exhibition, China Hall Spode, Stoke on Trent

06/2019 Degree Show, Ulster University, Belfast

06/2016 Duncairn Arts Centre, Belfast

12/2015 Ulster University Undergraduate Show, Belfast

06/2015 ‘The Next Generation’ Spacecraft Gallery, Belfast

05/2015 Duncairn Arts Centre, Belfast

12/2014 Ulster University Undergraduate Show, Belfast

06/2012 SERC Foundation Show, Bangor