MAD IN STOKE: RIOT HERE RIOT NOW – Carrie Reichardt – closes today, 5th November 2023
Carrie Reichardt gained a First-Class degree in Fine Art in Leeds University and has had a career spanning many media, including film, performance and sculpture. She is perhaps best known as a ceramicist and mosaicist, working internationally on large scale public murals.
A renegade who is revered in anti-establishment circles, Reichardt’s preoccupation with seditious ceramics places her within an artistic tradition extending back to William Morris.
Carrie Reichardt creates anarchic artworks where vintage floral, kitsch, royal and religious crockery is given a new twist by re-firing with layers of new ceramic decals. They are modified in a “radical use of traditional things” and often adorned with skulls, cheeky slogans, and political statements. Her first solo exhibition, entitled ‘Mad in England’, provided an exploration of this theme, which she has continued to pursue in subsequent work.
Carried Reichardt has been an outspoken advocate for using Art as a form of personal therapy and ‘Mad in England’ is a perfect back stamp for her work. It is fitting that her house and studio in Chiswick is famously called The Treatment Rooms.
The Spode Museum is delighted to host this must see exhibition which is guaranteed to impress, provoke and amuse in equal measure. The exhibition runs from 23rd September to 5th November 2023.
