ABOUT
Artist Statement
My practice moves between artistic fieldwork, material research and making. Based on the Llŷn Peninsula in North West Wales, my work begins with paying attention to specific places over time. Through repeated visits, field research, and observation of changing landscapes, from coastal erosion and seasonal shifts to interspecies relationships, weather patterns, and geological formations, I explore how earth materials are shaped by the environments they inhabit and the relationships they hold.
Originally working in ceramics, moving to North Wales in 2020 transformed my understanding of clay. Rather than encountering it as a material separated from its origins, I began to see it as part of a much longer process: formed through glaciation, exposed through erosion, shaped by weather and vegetation, and continually participating within living systems. Clay became not simply a material to form, but a way of understanding the histories, processes and conditions of a place.
My current practice centres on clom, the traditional clay-and-straw earth-building material of North West Wales. Reinterpreting this vernacular process within a contemporary art context, I create unfired sculptural works from clay-rich earth gathered from the landscape alongside bioregional fibres like straw (an agricultural by-product). Built slowly by hand, the works retain the qualities of the materials from which they are made: variations in colour, texture, structure and behaviour become traces of geological formation, environmental conditions and place. The forms, surfaces and gestures within my work emerge through this process of attention. Carved textures, layered surfaces and undulating structures respond to eroding coastlines, shifting topographies, cloud formations, plant growth and the slow movement of land over time. Rather than imposing a fixed outcome onto the material, I work with its inherent characteristics as a record of the systems it is part of.
Alongside sculptural work, my practice extends into workshops, collaborative research, environmental and material-led projects. Across these different forms, I explore how close attention to materials can cultivate deeper relationships with the landscapes we inhabit and reveal alternative ways of understanding our place within living systems.
My practice moves between artistic fieldwork, material research and making. Based on the Llŷn Peninsula in North West Wales, my work begins with paying attention to specific places over time. Through repeated visits, field research, and observation of changing landscapes, from coastal erosion and seasonal shifts to interspecies relationships, weather patterns, and geological formations, I explore how earth materials are shaped by the environments they inhabit and the relationships they hold.
Originally working in ceramics, moving to North Wales in 2020 transformed my understanding of clay. Rather than encountering it as a material separated from its origins, I began to see it as part of a much longer process: formed through glaciation, exposed through erosion, shaped by weather and vegetation, and continually participating within living systems. Clay became not simply a material to form, but a way of understanding the histories, processes and conditions of a place.
My current practice centres on clom, the traditional clay-and-straw earth-building material of North West Wales. Reinterpreting this vernacular process within a contemporary art context, I create unfired sculptural works from clay-rich earth gathered from the landscape alongside bioregional fibres like straw (an agricultural by-product). Built slowly by hand, the works retain the qualities of the materials from which they are made: variations in colour, texture, structure and behaviour become traces of geological formation, environmental conditions and place. The forms, surfaces and gestures within my work emerge through this process of attention. Carved textures, layered surfaces and undulating structures respond to eroding coastlines, shifting topographies, cloud formations, plant growth and the slow movement of land over time. Rather than imposing a fixed outcome onto the material, I work with its inherent characteristics as a record of the systems it is part of.
Alongside sculptural work, my practice extends into workshops, collaborative research, environmental and material-led projects. Across these different forms, I explore how close attention to materials can cultivate deeper relationships with the landscapes we inhabit and reveal alternative ways of understanding our place within living systems.
Artist Bio
Gabriella Rhodes (b. 1993, Stoke-on-Trent) is a visual artist and material researcher based on the Llŷn Peninsula in North West Wales. Her practice combines artistic fieldwork, material research and making to explore the relationships between geology, ecology, culture and place. Working across sculpture, craft, installation and collaborative research, Rhodes investigates how earth materials carry traces of the landscapes they emerge from. Through walking, geological observation and hands-on experimentation, she develops place-responsive approaches to material practice that attend to materials as active participants within wider ecological and cultural systems.
Her ongoing investigation into clom, a traditional clay-and-straw earth-building material of North West Wales, reinterprets this vernacular process through contemporary sculpture. Her unfired works explore material qualities, vernacular knowledge and the relationship between geological processes and human acts of making.
Rhodes completed an MA in Regenerative Design with Distinction at Central Saint Martins (2026) and holds a BA in Three-Dimensional Design from Manchester School of Art (2018). Her work has been exhibited through London Craft Week (2024, 2025), MOMA Machynlleth and Plas Glyn-y-Weddw. She has undertaken residencies at Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark) and Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), and presented her research at the Making Ecologies Symposium at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Regenerate! Symposium at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht.
Alongside studio practice, Rhodes develops workshops, commissions and collaborative projects that explore how material knowledge can connect creative practice with ecological research and place-based understanding.
Gabriella Rhodes (b. 1993, Stoke-on-Trent) is a visual artist and material researcher based on the Llŷn Peninsula in North West Wales. Her practice combines artistic fieldwork, material research and making to explore the relationships between geology, ecology, culture and place. Working across sculpture, craft, installation and collaborative research, Rhodes investigates how earth materials carry traces of the landscapes they emerge from. Through walking, geological observation and hands-on experimentation, she develops place-responsive approaches to material practice that attend to materials as active participants within wider ecological and cultural systems.
Her ongoing investigation into clom, a traditional clay-and-straw earth-building material of North West Wales, reinterprets this vernacular process through contemporary sculpture. Her unfired works explore material qualities, vernacular knowledge and the relationship between geological processes and human acts of making.
Rhodes completed an MA in Regenerative Design with Distinction at Central Saint Martins (2026) and holds a BA in Three-Dimensional Design from Manchester School of Art (2018). Her work has been exhibited through London Craft Week (2024, 2025), MOMA Machynlleth and Plas Glyn-y-Weddw. She has undertaken residencies at Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark) and Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), and presented her research at the Making Ecologies Symposium at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Regenerate! Symposium at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht.
Alongside studio practice, Rhodes develops workshops, commissions and collaborative projects that explore how material knowledge can connect creative practice with ecological research and place-based understanding.
Credit Adam GrüningCV
EDUCATION
2024–26 MA Regenerative Design (Distinction), Central Saint Martins 2015–18 BA Three-Dimensional Design, Manchester School of Art
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 Coed Coexist Artist Commission, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Wales
Developed new sculptural installation in collaboration with filmmaker Benjamin Green exploring relationships between clay, landscape and ecological systems.
2025 The Art of Slowness, Wondering People, London Craft Week
2025 Artistiaid Enlli / Bardsey Artists, Group show, Storiel, Wales
2024 HANDS, Wondering People & 8 Holland Street, London Craft Week
2024 EARTHING, Group show, Haeckels, London Craft Week
2023 Agored/Open, Group show, Galeri Caernarfon, Wales
2023 Artistiaid Ifainc Cymru (Selected Young Welsh Artists), Group show, MOMA Machynlleth, Wales 2023 On Reflection, Group Show, Wondering People, Nunnery Gallery, London
2022 Winter Exhibition, Group Show, Thrown Gallery, London
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS / RESIDENCIES
2026 Making Ecologies Symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Presented research on situated making and clay-based material ecologies in contemporary craft. 2026 Material Connections, Aberlleiniog Sculpture Trail, Plas Bodfa, Wales
Material research and fieldwork exploring local clay, geology and place-based making.
2025 Where Land and Water Meet, MA Regenerative Design, LVMH Maison/0 Challenge Fund
Collaborative field research exploring relationships between coastal ecologies, materials and place.
2025 Ecosystem Alliance: Biodiversity & Design Symposium, Central Saint Martins & Maison/0 Presented research exploring sediments, material relationships and ecological systems.
2025 Regenerative Realities, MA Regenerative Design, Central Saint Martins
MA cohort presentation on field-based, site-responsive material research and regenerative approaches to making.
2024 Regenerate! Symposium, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Presented research and led a material demonstration exploring clay, making processes and regenerative approaches.
2024 Artist-in-Residence, Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island)
2018 Project Network Residency, Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark
EXPERIENCE
2025– Support Project Coordinator, FFYNNU Celf, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw (part-time, freelance)
Supporting a residency and engagement programme exploring how artists and communities respond to place, ecology and climate change across Pen Llŷn.
2023– Artist, Maker and Material Researcher, Self-Employed
Developing an independent sculptural practice centred on clay, earth materials, vernacular making and place-based research. Delivering workshops and public engagement exploring material relationships, craft processes and hands-on making.
2023– Freelance Marketing Consultant – Arts & Cultural Organisations
Supporting artists and arts organisations with communications strategy, digital content and audience engagement, including Junko Mori, PiCL and Artists Benevolent Fund.
2022–23 Communications Manager, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
2019–22 Communications Assistant, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
2018–19 Evaluation & Research Assistant, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
SELECTED WORKSHOPS
2026 Coed Coexist, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Wales
2025 Still Parents, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
2024 SOILS, Sophie Boobyer / Van Abbemuseum, Dutch Design Week
2023 An Introduction to Smoke Firing, The Good Life Society, Wales
2023 Sculptural Earth Bowls, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog
2019 The Clay Quarter, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
SELECTED AWARDS / BURSARIES
2024 Home Scholarship, University of the Arts London
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
EDUCATION
2024–26 MA Regenerative Design (Distinction), Central Saint Martins 2015–18 BA Three-Dimensional Design, Manchester School of Art
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 Coed Coexist Artist Commission, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Wales
Developed new sculptural installation in collaboration with filmmaker Benjamin Green exploring relationships between clay, landscape and ecological systems.
2025 The Art of Slowness, Wondering People, London Craft Week
2025 Artistiaid Enlli / Bardsey Artists, Group show, Storiel, Wales
2024 HANDS, Wondering People & 8 Holland Street, London Craft Week
2024 EARTHING, Group show, Haeckels, London Craft Week
2023 Agored/Open, Group show, Galeri Caernarfon, Wales
2023 Artistiaid Ifainc Cymru (Selected Young Welsh Artists), Group show, MOMA Machynlleth, Wales 2023 On Reflection, Group Show, Wondering People, Nunnery Gallery, London
2022 Winter Exhibition, Group Show, Thrown Gallery, London
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS / RESIDENCIES
2026 Making Ecologies Symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Presented research on situated making and clay-based material ecologies in contemporary craft. 2026 Material Connections, Aberlleiniog Sculpture Trail, Plas Bodfa, Wales
Material research and fieldwork exploring local clay, geology and place-based making.
2025 Where Land and Water Meet, MA Regenerative Design, LVMH Maison/0 Challenge Fund
Collaborative field research exploring relationships between coastal ecologies, materials and place.
2025 Ecosystem Alliance: Biodiversity & Design Symposium, Central Saint Martins & Maison/0 Presented research exploring sediments, material relationships and ecological systems.
2025 Regenerative Realities, MA Regenerative Design, Central Saint Martins
MA cohort presentation on field-based, site-responsive material research and regenerative approaches to making.
2024 Regenerate! Symposium, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Presented research and led a material demonstration exploring clay, making processes and regenerative approaches.
2024 Artist-in-Residence, Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island)
2018 Project Network Residency, Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark
EXPERIENCE
2025– Support Project Coordinator, FFYNNU Celf, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw (part-time, freelance)
Supporting a residency and engagement programme exploring how artists and communities respond to place, ecology and climate change across Pen Llŷn.
2023– Artist, Maker and Material Researcher, Self-Employed
Developing an independent sculptural practice centred on clay, earth materials, vernacular making and place-based research. Delivering workshops and public engagement exploring material relationships, craft processes and hands-on making.
2023– Freelance Marketing Consultant – Arts & Cultural Organisations
Supporting artists and arts organisations with communications strategy, digital content and audience engagement, including Junko Mori, PiCL and Artists Benevolent Fund.
2022–23 Communications Manager, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
2019–22 Communications Assistant, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
2018–19 Evaluation & Research Assistant, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
SELECTED WORKSHOPS
2026 Coed Coexist, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Wales
2025 Still Parents, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
2024 SOILS, Sophie Boobyer / Van Abbemuseum, Dutch Design Week
2023 An Introduction to Smoke Firing, The Good Life Society, Wales
2023 Sculptural Earth Bowls, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog
2019 The Clay Quarter, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
SELECTED AWARDS / BURSARIES
2024 Home Scholarship, University of the Arts London
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 Work / 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.