A near life-size photograph of the Nigerian ceramicist Ladi Kwali greets visitors at the entrance to Body Vessel Clay, a show on 70 years of black female potters at Two Temple Place in London. The photo is taken from a low angle, with Kwali standing behind one of her water pots and looking down towards the viewer. Her posture is confident and self-assured, but her gaze feels parental: a matriarch for the three generations of artists on display.

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A final room feels slightly abrupted from the rest, displaying works by artists who don’t necessarily have a direct connection to Kwali. Nevertheless, this section provides an important view into the practices of more contemporary black women artists working with ceramics and clay. This includes two films, “Clay” (2015) by Jade Montserrat and Webb-Ellis and “Burdened” (2018) by Julia Phillips, which engage with the materiality of the medium through performance, as well as pieces by Phoebe Collings-James, Shawanda Corbett and Chinasa Vivian Ezugha, which showcase the versatility of the medium.

Review by Ferre Gipson

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