Juliet Ferguson-Rose

Juliet Ferguson-Rose is a London-based artist and sculptor. From 2011 to 2020, Ferguson-Rose lived and worked in the North-East of England. She received a First-Class degree in Fine Art from Newcastle University (2015), a post-graduate diploma in Glass and Ceramics from Sunderland University (2021) and graduated from the Royal College of Art (2023). Ferguson-Rose has undertaken residencies with Collective Matter, London 2019 and Joya, Spain, 2019. From 2020 – 2022, Ferguson-Rose taught Ceramics and Sculpture GCSE and A-level at a secondary school in Oxford. She is a recipient of Arts Council England Grants (2017 & 2018) for personal practice projects and curatorial projects, the Sir Alistair and Lady Pilkington Award (2022) and the Charlotte Fraser Prize (2023).

Since graduating from the RCA, Ferguson-Rose has set up Earthworks Ceramic Studios alongside fellow RCA graduate Joshua Aubrook. Earthworks aims to provide a creative and inclusive space for beginners and ceramic enthusiasts to learn, create, and collaborate.

“My practice assembles personal, prehistorical and topographical references. As an artist and sculptor primarily working in clay, I am making sculptures as both maker and ‘archaeologist’ of collaged space, time and objects.

Through excavating, mixing, cutting, compressing and attaching clay, I unearth and create layers of surface and meaning. Drawing upon this broad visual language of making, clay components are grouped to expose topographical portals, where narratives are arranged and rearranged, becoming an assemblage of relics preserved in time, totems to future-past narratives.

This approach parallels the exhilaration of the archaeologist excavating, with the process of an artist who mines concepts from the recesses of their mind, both seeking to stumble upon the unknown. The language of the clay itself is of prime importance, comprised of fine particles of compressed amalgam of mineral, flora and fauna. Mixed and hidden layers reveal the material’s tactile nature and the human need to create, preserve and remember. I create works that aspire to delight myself and the viewer’s curiosity, reminding us that no layer is the same in the process of discovery.”

Visit Juliet Ferguson-Rose’s website and Instagram page.