Jingdezhen has been the porcelain production capital of the world for 1000 years.
Connoisseurs from Asia, Europe, Middle East, and America admired the craftsmanship of the work. From mining the clay, processing, transporting, wedging, designing the form, throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing, etc., traditionally there were 72 craftsmen who made one pot. This ensured that master artisans were at every step of the making process.
In the last one hundred years, Jingdezhen has become a more industrialized city, with large factories set up for mass production. Young people did not have the opportunity to become individual artists and most leave this city after graduating from the local ceramic university to find a job in another field. In 1998 if you visited Jingdezhen there were hardly any young people working as individual artists, the city was gloomy, depressing and the craft was dying.
The Pottery Workshop saw a need to create a sustainable environment for these young aspiring artists to stay and work in ceramics in Jingdezhen. We organized lectures every Friday evening and invited international artists to give talks about their work, held classes to teach creativity and ideas development, and in 2008 we set up a Creative Market every Saturday morning for them to sell their work and make a living. Since then, many of them are able to set up their own studios, establish a network of peers, and start to create unique ideas and skills. This past two years we have seen many people coming to Jingdezhen after they graduated from other schools in China and set up studios here also.
In this exhibition you will find work made by these young budding artists. They are all under 30 years old, and have graduated within the last 5 years. Some of them have won international awards for their work while others are keeping up the craftsmanship and exploring new ideas.
The Pottery Workshop was founded in 1985 in Hong Kong to promote the art of handmade potteryby setting a studio and gallery. Since 2001, we have studios and shops in Shanghai, Beijing, Jingdezhen and Dali in China. In Jingdezhen there is an international residency program, education center for university groups to come learn the local craftsmanship, gallery to promote young artists, design studio that create unique work for hotel projects and shops, and the Creative Market for the young artists.
