London-based ceramicist Tina Vlassopulos is one of the leading hand-builders of sculptural forms. With a BA Honors in ceramics from Bristol Polytechnic, numerous awards to her name, and international exhibitions, Tina makes pieces that are full of latent energy and movement. Their energy emanates from in the twists, curves and spirals that feature in Tina’s work and make it so distinctive. Each piece is made of carefully burnished earthenware which has a strong elemental quality and shifts her work away from our traditional familiarities and perceptions of ceramics.

Tina Vlassopulos’ work is an exploration of the relationship between shape, volume and negative space, drawing visual ideas from nature and her interest in the performing arts. She is concerned in instilling a sense of movement and poise in each piece while also creating harmony. The pots are made with an eye to the possibility of function, but this is balanced by a sculptural context to the forms and the concept of container carries only an aesthetic and symbolic value.

Tina Vlassopulos’ work is indeed deceptively simple, as if the artist had mastered the secret of gently persuading the near-impossible to balance. Her graceful and enigmatic vessels adopt somewhat unlikely postures and unusual angles, as if flirting with expected boundaries. They seem to arc and bend effortlessly in a manner which belies the complexity of their construction.

Tina Vlassopulos habitually uses terracotta or stoneware, to which she often adds oxides; rich earthy reds contrast with the subtle, cool shades of blue, off-white, lavender and egg-shell. Each work is hand-built, an intensive process which can take up to a week for each pot. Sometimes she starts her pieces by press-moulding (usually a bowl shape), followed by coiling and/or soft-slabbing. Tina Vlassopulos works on several pieces at a time, exploring different aspects of expression and form as each creation develops its own unique trajectory.

There is a paradoxical quality inherent in Tina Vlassopulos’ sculpture; animation within stillness, intimate yet remote, expansive but contained, both emotive and discreet, dignified but somehow slinky, uncompromising but never dogmatic, confident as opposed to severe, witty not arch. Tina Vlassopulos’ work suggests possibilities and interplay, as opposed to making strident statements.