Alice Shields

Alice Shields (b. 1984) is a British ceramic artist whose practice explores themes of walking, materiality and sustainability as a means to investigate the mapping of a place and our ability to form deep emotional connections to it.

Using clay as a collaging tool, she presents her walks in the form of layered strata, with each material component reflecting an individual element of the walk and landscape she moves through. Clays and glazes are used in various states of malleability, providing opportunity to elicit connections to site and perhaps recognisable qualities found there. She will often raw fire her work, welcoming their unpredictable outcomes. She regularly incorporates elements of previous work within her sculptures as well as recycled waste matter. These choices provide endless circularity to her processes and material supplies. Finding ways to be as sustainable as possible has become a more pertinent framework to work within.

Alice received her MA and BA (hons) in Ceramic Design from Bath School of Art and Design in 2018 and 2008 respectively. She has exhibited at galleries and institutions across the UK and internationally including the Southbank Centre and Royal Academy of Arts in London. She was shortlisted for the 15th Westerwald Keramik Prize, Germany, in 2024. In 2023, she co-curated the group exhibition ‘Disruption, Direction’, presenting a body of work produced as a result of monthly peer group support. She was the recipient of the Ganes Trust grant in 2018 and artist residency at The Garage, Bristol, in 2023.

Alice Shields is director and co-founder of the co-working ceramic studio, Clay Shed, in Bristol, UK. She presents courses, curates visiting artist talks, and provides professional development opportunities for clay-based makers and artists. She has taught ceramic education to adult learners since 2018 across a range of organisations.

Visit Alice Shields’s website and Instagram page.