info@studio-pots.com		Harlequin Gallery
As recommended by The Times 24.10.07
Mike Dodd: - A solo exhibition of new work from this most respected of British potters. 4 to 25 November 2007
No.48 – Wax resist teabowl. Height: 10.6cm (4.2”) Max. Diameter: 10.7cm (4.25”)		No.12 - Basalt jug with chun ring. Height: 28.0cm (11.1”) SOLD
No.27 – Cracked slip vase. Height: 21.2cm (11.1”)		No.34 – Fluted vase with two lugs. Height: 17.9cm (7.1”)
No.14 – Textured vase. Height: 21.2 cm (8.3”) SOLD		No.39 – Dumpy vase with two lugs. Height: 16.3cm (6.4”)
No.56 Yunomi. Height: 10.5cm (4.1”) Max. Diameter: 9.2cm (3.6”)		No.9 – Jug with basalt and porphyry/ash. Height: 21.0cm (8.25”)
No.4 – Faceted bottle vase with Somerset basalt. Height: 33.0cm (13.0”)		No.15 – Two handled ribbed vase, ash glaze. Height: 29.5cm (11.6”)
No.41 – Cracked slip bowl, porphyry/ash. Height: 10.0cm (3.9”) Diameter: 17.3cm (6.8”)		No.25 – Flattened vase with chun ash glaze. Height: 23.4cm (9.2”) SOLD
Looking back through my records I was shocked to see that it is four years since Mike Dodd last exhibited at the Harlequin Gallery, a situation brought about by circumstance and the desire of other galleries throughout the country to show Mike’s pots that he has been perfecting for the best part of 50 years. Back in 1957, Mike was still a schoolboy but it was the year that he started at Bryanston School and came under the influence of sculptor and potter, Donald Potter, who was Art master there. Potter’s enthusiasm and visits organised by him to ex-Bryanston pupil, Richard Batterham’s pottery and to Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie got Mike hooked. Mike recalls Pleydell-Bouverie always willing to show the boys her pottery collection, the best of which were kept under the stairs, and her enthusiasm for glazes and their recipes. So much so that despite going to Cambridge to read Medicine, Mike decided to become a potter whilst studying there and after what was not a terribly useful year at Hammersmith School of Art, he set up his first pottery at Edburton, Surrey in 1968. Other potteries have followed, including a wood-fired Korean-type climbing kiln built in Peru in 1979 as part of the Amuesha Indian Project funded by Oxfam and Survival International. The Harlequin held the first exhibition of work from his sixth and what Mike believes will be his final pottery at Dove Workshops in Somerset in 2000, where he continues to develop his range of reduction-fired stoneware. Certainly, it is fair to say that his pots are in the Anglo Oriental tradition but his continuing fascination and experimentation with glazes, together with the pots texture, form and tactile qualities sets them apart. In interviews Mike readily admits that some of his favourite pots are Korean, medieval English, T’zu chou, Han and Shigaraki but he is quick to recognise other influences such as Italian Majolica and the pots of Burma, Turkey and Africa. Influences some of which date back to student days visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum and seeing “pots with that unpretentious, urgent quality“. As Phil Rogers says in his book, Ash Glazes, Mike “is making some of the most exciting work ever seen in this country”. Both Potter and Pleydell-Bouverie were interested in glazes, their make-up and qualities so it is no real surprise that Mike should share this enthusiasm, although it wasn’t until his move to Townsend, Cornwall in 1975 that his passion really developed. It was there that he seriously began collecting and using local materials such as granites, clays, irons and ochre alongside wood ashes that he has continued to collect and use to this day. A few years ago the American potter, David Stannard, who has spent his life studying glazes visited the Harlequin and told me that he had just met Mike after corresponding with him for 20 or so years. This after a recommendation from Michael Cardew, who had written to him saying that Mike “is young and quite intelligent and even makes nice pots.” Mike has a significant international reputation and his work is to be found in all of the major public collections in the UK including the V&A Museum, the British Craft Council Collection, the Farnham Study Collection, the Cleveland Craft Collection and that of the Ulster Museum in Belfast. The Bill Ismay collection in York also includes many examples of Mike’s work, including one of the very last pots that Bill bought from the 2000 Harlequin exhibition mentioned above. Mike will be present at the Private View on Sunday 4th November to meet old friends and hopefully some new ones too. We look forward to seeing you there
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