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Atelier Axiom
All exhibitions

Craft

Clay, Held

Earthenware made for daily use, and what happens to those forms when they are drawn for a factory.

Dates
5 September to 22 November 2026
Location
Axiom Gallery Two, London
Format
In person and online
Sources
Jingdezhen, Oaxaca, Puglia
Terracotta pots grouped in warm sunlight against a textured white wall, casting soft shadows.

Terracotta pots grouped in warm sunlight against a textured white wall, casting soft shadows.

About this exhibition

A vessel that is picked up forty times a day has its handle placed by hand, not by a rule. Potters in Jingdezhen, Oaxaca and Puglia arrived at similar answers separately, and this exhibition puts their pieces on one long open shelf so the convergences are visible without a caption.

A second table shows the same forms redrawn for production: the tolerances added, the undercuts removed, the wall thicknesses standardised. Six of the redrawings were rejected by the original makers, and their written reasons are shown next to the drawings.

The exhibition closes with the royalty agreements, printed in full, because the terms are the part of this exchange that usually goes unrecorded.

Featured artists

  • Lin Zhaoyu
  • Esperanza Nunez
  • Giulia Ferraro
  • Object Practice

Partners

  • Kiln Street Records, Jingdezhen
  • Barro Negro Cooperative
  • Terracotta Workshop, Grottaglie

Access passes cover the gallery, the reading room and the source documents. Free for makers, students and anyone named in the work.