About
Gabriele Koch grew up in Germany and after an academic degree at Heidelberg University relocated to London and trained in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College. She established her studio as a professional ceramicist in 1982 with the help of a Crafts Council Setting-up Grant and rose to prominence in the late 1980 with her hand built burnished and smoke fired pots. She has exhibited widely in the UK, continental Europe, America and China, and her work is represented worldwide in private and public collections, notably the V&A, Fitzwilliam Museum and Ashmolean Museum. She has lectured and demonstrated widely in the UK and internationally including Art Colleges in the UK and Israel. A monograph by Tony Birks introduced by Sir David Attenborough was published in 2009. In 2011 she gave the Inaugural Rothschild Memorial Lecture in Gateshead. She is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association, a member of Contemporary Applied Arts and a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.
Koch’s interest in clay had been kindled in Spain, an encounter with a sparse desert- like landscape of strong earth colours, hints of Africa and early cultures, the contemporary work of Antoni Tàpies and Eduardo Chillida. Her interest in the elemental quality of ceramics led her to investigate the direct interaction between fire and earth finding expression in her burnished, smoke fired vessel forms. She has done research into traditional pottery making in villages in Mexico, Guatemala and India, in 2020 she spent some time on a research project in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Today her work has developed a new language, inspired by geological landscapes looking at strata and surface qualities leading to combining a variety of stoneware clays with porcelain and slips at a higher temperature, still celebrating the beauty of the natural material. Central to her work is the concept of the vessel, creating associations with sharing, ritual and celebration. Her exploration of form, surface and texture is an ongoing process.
