ABOUT
Artist Statement
Gabriella Rhodes (b. Stoke-on-Trent) is an artist based on the Llŷn Peninsula, North Wales. Her arts practice is place-based, exploring the interconnections of ecology, geology, and vernacular knowledge systems. Since relocating from Manchester to Wales in 2020, she has transitioned from a ceramics practice reliant on globally sourced, untraceable clays and glazes to working with clom — a mixture of clay-rich earth and straw used in the region’s vernacular architecture — reinterpreting these traditional earth-building techniques within a contemporary studio context.
She now makes sculptural clom works from bio-regional materials gathered responsibly following landslips or gifted as “waste” by local industries. Each form is built by hand and remains unfired to highlight the nuances and variations inherent in site-specific earths and clays. The works are cured with natural oils, making them durable enough to last hundreds of years, yet able to be broken down, remade, or returned to the land, remaining part of an ongoing geological cycle. The resulting forms are abstract responses to encounters with the landscape of the peninsula, from cloud formations and undulating hills to tidal rhythms.
Making is interwoven with geological mapping, fieldwork, ecological observation, and visits to historical and present-day extraction sites, building a holistic understanding of earthly matter and its entanglement with living systems — past, present, and future. Through this practice, she investigates the possibilities and tensions of developing a regenerative material practice with site-specific clays and soils that supports multi-species co-flourishing, proposing a reimagining of earth not as an passive resources but as an active, temporal collaborator within interdependent living systems.
Gabriella Rhodes (b. Stoke-on-Trent) is an artist based on the Llŷn Peninsula, North Wales. Her arts practice is place-based, exploring the interconnections of ecology, geology, and vernacular knowledge systems. Since relocating from Manchester to Wales in 2020, she has transitioned from a ceramics practice reliant on globally sourced, untraceable clays and glazes to working with clom — a mixture of clay-rich earth and straw used in the region’s vernacular architecture — reinterpreting these traditional earth-building techniques within a contemporary studio context.
She now makes sculptural clom works from bio-regional materials gathered responsibly following landslips or gifted as “waste” by local industries. Each form is built by hand and remains unfired to highlight the nuances and variations inherent in site-specific earths and clays. The works are cured with natural oils, making them durable enough to last hundreds of years, yet able to be broken down, remade, or returned to the land, remaining part of an ongoing geological cycle. The resulting forms are abstract responses to encounters with the landscape of the peninsula, from cloud formations and undulating hills to tidal rhythms.
Making is interwoven with geological mapping, fieldwork, ecological observation, and visits to historical and present-day extraction sites, building a holistic understanding of earthly matter and its entanglement with living systems — past, present, and future. Through this practice, she investigates the possibilities and tensions of developing a regenerative material practice with site-specific clays and soils that supports multi-species co-flourishing, proposing a reimagining of earth not as an passive resources but as an active, temporal collaborator within interdependent living systems.
Artist Bio
Gabriella Rhodes (b. 1993, Stoke-on-Trent) is an artist based on the Llŷn Peninsula, North Wales. She graduated from Manchester School of Art in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Three-Dimensional Design and is currently studying remotely for a Master’s in Regenerative Design at Central Saint Martins. Her work investigates the interconnections of ecology, geology, and vernacular knowledge systems on the Llŷn Peninsula, focusing on clom — a mixture of clay-rich earth and straw used in the region’s vernacular architecture. By reinterpreting these techniques within a contemporary context, she explores the possibilities and tensions of developing a regenerative arts practice with site-specific minerals and soils that supports multi-species co-flourishing.
Gabriella has exhibited nationally, including at London Craft Week (2024 & 2025) and Artistiaid Ifainc Cymru at MOMA Machynlleth. She has received grants and residencies from Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark), A-B Projects (Los Angeles), and the Arts Council of Wales. In 2024, she presented her MA research at Regenerate!, a symposium hosted by the Jan Van Eyck Academie, sharing work on unfired, site-specific clays in contemporary practice through the lens of vernacular earth-building and regenerative material narratives.
Gabriella Rhodes (b. 1993, Stoke-on-Trent) is an artist based on the Llŷn Peninsula, North Wales. She graduated from Manchester School of Art in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Three-Dimensional Design and is currently studying remotely for a Master’s in Regenerative Design at Central Saint Martins. Her work investigates the interconnections of ecology, geology, and vernacular knowledge systems on the Llŷn Peninsula, focusing on clom — a mixture of clay-rich earth and straw used in the region’s vernacular architecture. By reinterpreting these techniques within a contemporary context, she explores the possibilities and tensions of developing a regenerative arts practice with site-specific minerals and soils that supports multi-species co-flourishing.
Gabriella has exhibited nationally, including at London Craft Week (2024 & 2025) and Artistiaid Ifainc Cymru at MOMA Machynlleth. She has received grants and residencies from Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark), A-B Projects (Los Angeles), and the Arts Council of Wales. In 2024, she presented her MA research at Regenerate!, a symposium hosted by the Jan Van Eyck Academie, sharing work on unfired, site-specific clays in contemporary practice through the lens of vernacular earth-building and regenerative material narratives.
Credit Adam GrüningCV
EDUCATION / TRAINING
2024-2026 MA Regenerative Design, Central Saint Martins
2024 Soil as Art: Elegy and Revival, Swiss Institute New York, Online
2023 Ochre Practices with Heidi Gustafson, Online
2023 Natural Building Festival, Estonia
2022 Clay Plastering, School of Natural Building, Anglesey
2015-2018, BA Three-Dimensional Design, Manchester School of Art
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / RESIDENCIES
2026 Coed Coexist, Plas Glyn Y Weddw, Wales
2025 The Art of Slowness, Wondering People, London Craft Week
2024 Artist-in-Residence, Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island)
2024 HANDS, Wondering People & 8 Holland Street, London Craft Week
2024 EARTHING, Haeckels, London Craft Week
2023 Agored/Open, Galeri Caernarfon, Caernarfon
2023 Artistiaid Ifainc Cymru (Young Welsh Artists), MOMA Machynlleth
2023 On Reflection, Wondering People, Nunnery Gallery, London
2023 Summer Exhibition, Plas Glyn y Weddw, Wales
2022 Winter Exhibition, Thrown Gallery, London
2018 Project Network, Guldagergaad Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark
SELECTED COMMISSIONS / WORKSHOPS
2025-26 Coed Coexist Artist Commission, Plas Glyn Y Weddw, Wales
2025 Still Parents, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
2025 Regenerate! Symposium, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
2024 SOILS, Sophie Boobyer/Van Abbemuseum, Dutch Design Week
2023 An Introduction to Smoke Firing, The Good Life Society, Wales
2023 A Symbiotic Clay Environment, Dena Bagi MA, AFHEA, Aalto University, Finland
2023 Sculptural Earth Bowls, Plas Glyn Y Weddw, Llanbedrog
2023 An Introduction to Smoke Firing, The Good Life Society, Wales
2023 Sculptural Earth Bowls, Ground Workshops, Stoke-on-Trent
2019 The Clay Quarter, British Ceramics Biennial 2019, Stoke-on-Trent
SELECTED AWARDS / BURSARIES
2023 International Opportunities Fund, Arts Council of Wales
2023 New Wave Scholarship, A-B Projects, Los Angeles
2018 Solo Exhibition Award, AIR Gallery, Manchester
2018 Graduate Award, Manchester Craft and Design Centre
PRESS
2023 Country Living, February Issue
2022 Red Magazine, December Issue
PDF Version
Credit Adam Grüning
Credit Adam Grüning and Holly Fielder
Credit Adam Grüning
Purchasing a Piece / Commissions
Pieces are available to purchase at various points throughout the year, once a collection of work is finished. Sign up for the newsletter to hear about this first or alternatively, email to enquire about currently available works.
Commissions are currently open. Find out more and make an enquiry.
Pieces are available to purchase at various points throughout the year, once a collection of work is finished. Sign up for the newsletter to hear about this first or alternatively, email to enquire about currently available works.
Commissions are currently open. Find out more and make an enquiry.