I am delighted to have my piece Toadflax Roundel selected for the IAC members’ exhibition, Mediterranean Ceramics and their Global Influence, which opens during the 51st Congress of the International Academy of Ceramics, of which I have been a member since 2021.

Toadflax Roundel is part of my Fire & Water body of work, developed in response to the Victoria Spring in Borines, Asturias, northern Spain. I examined the tiny plants growing around the spring through a microscope and captured highly magnified images which I rendered in porcelain and glazed in electric and wood fired kilns, making up a series of roundels called Fire & Water which was presented for the first time at Collect, at the Saatchi Gallery in London, 2019. Since then Fire & Water returned to its birthplace and was exhibted as Fuego y Agua, in the extraordinarily evocative setting of the former spa building at Borines, now a space for culture, in 2022. Elements of Fire & Water have been exhibited at the Kogei Triennial, Kanazawa, Japan, and the Maylis Grand Young Masters Prize in London, among other outings.

Mediterranean Ceramics and their Global Influence results from a call organized by the International Academy of Ceramics, directed to all its members, and which resulted in the selection of 45 artists from 26 countries, which present through art the inspiring power of the ancient culture of the Mediterranean. Curated by Alberto Guerreiro and José Antunes.