We are delighted to welcome Jean-Nicolas Gérard and his wonderful pots to the gallery again on Saturday 11th July 2026 for his 5th major UK exhibition.
The show opens at 10am. Join us at 1pm for fizz and a light lunch, followed by an opportunity to meet Jean-Nicolas.
We have been filling our own kitchens with Gérard’s life-affirming slipware for over a decade now. Every summer we dispatch a lucky team to the south of France to bring back fresh supplies of Gérard’s pots (and some Provençal sun, too).
‘Jean-Nicholas Gérard’s work throws its arms wide and feels no embarrassment whatsoever. It is an unrestrained celebration of clay and colour, of shape and form and volume, of sitting down together round a table and eating and drinking.’ – author Mark Haddon
Born in Brazzaville, Congo, in 1954, at the age of six Gérard’s family relocated to the hills north of Cannes and, a little later, Marseille, where he discovered his love of pottery as a student in a ‘post-68, Zen’ ceramics studio: ‘Straight away I liked it – I could spend eight hours a day in that workshop.’ A second stroke of luck introduced him to the potter Jean Biagini, professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Aix-en-Provence. Biagini’s experience working in Nepal, Cambodia, Japan and the US would inspire Gérard’s own interest in Japanese and Korean pottery and their spirit of creative freedom and form.
In 1983 he opened his own studio in Valensole, in the south of France, where he has worked ever since, producing loose, lively terre vernissée (the French term for slip-decorated earthenware) and enlivening local traditions of slipware pottery.
Gérard is a potter that understands the importance of pots that nourish: everything he makes is intended to be functional. Adjoining his studio is a garden plot, an oasis of overgrown greenery and summer sun, in which he grows vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Preparing clay one minute and bread-dough the next, his work is a celebration of the natural abundance that surrounds him.
Gérard’s bowls and plates immediately brighten a laid table and elevate meals to moments of delicious communion. Unlike most potters, he seldom makes them in identical sets; each plate is an individual arrangement of sgraffito scars, finger spots, motifs and gestural marks. Performed at speed with the tip of a teaspoon or an improvised implement, lines are scratched over and around the surface of his pots, leaving dynamic, abstract designs cut into the clay. His large-scale works – giant jars and enormous square platters – are a tour-de-force of spontaneous decoration.
‘Gérard has long been known as “the potter’s potter”, so admired is he among colleagues. His pots bring human warmth, wit, and generosity to an increasingly remote and digital world. More than that, they have changed the way we eat and think about food here at the gallery. I start every day with a bowl, a beaker, a plate of Gérard’s. I invite you to do the same, and welcome some of these wonderful pots into your home.’ – Mike Goldmark
Date: Saturday 11th July 2026
Time: 1pm for fizz and a light lunch.
2pm Opportunity to meet Jean-Nicolas Gérard.
Please RSVP by email or by telephone on 01572 821 424.
Call for more details.
