Julie Cromwell graduated from Derbyshire University, UK, with a major in Studio Ceramics. In 2019 she completed her Master of Fine Arts degree at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design in New Zealand.

Cromwell was the first-prize winner of the Glaister Ennor Graduate Art Awards 2019, a finalist in the Richard T Nelson Award (2022, 2023), and an exhibited finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards (2023).

Cromwell’s works have developed from the artists’ ongoing research into the historical linage of clay and ceramics, as well as a recent exploration into funerary ware. The transmutation of clay itself captivates the artist: the material moving through states from mud to clay, to form, through fire to permanence. The work carries marks from the hands of the creator, while being exposed to carbon firing techniques and the rudimental pit. The imbued scars lay bare on the surface of the vessel: traces of their own narrative, and of becoming.

‘I enjoy working with the primal material of clay; with its origins rooted in the geology of our earth. The very material it is said we are made from, that we walk upon, and eventually return to, allows me to know and explore this cycle of life.’ Julie Cromwell

Courtesy of Sanderson Contemporary