Jennifer Lee (potter)

Jennifer Elizabeth Lee (born 1956) is a Scottish ceramic artist with an international reputation. Lee's distinctive pots are hand built using traditional pinch and coil methods. She has developed a method of colouring the pots by mixing metallic oxides into the clay before making. Her work is held in over forty museums and public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2018 Lee won the Loewe Craft Prize, an award initiated by Jonathan Anderson in 2017. The prize was presented to her at an awards ceremony at The Design Museum in London.

Early life and education
Lee was born in North East Scotland, daughter of a farmer. She was educated in Aberdeenshire. In 1974 Lee started a course in physiotherapy at Woolmanhill Hospital, Aberdeen. Lee's interest in ceramics began after meeting Robin Welch in Suffolk in 1974. She worked with Robin and Jenny Welch during the summers of 1975 and 1976 as a studio assistant.

From 1975 to 1979 she studied ceramics and tapestry at Edinburgh College of Art under the tutelage of Tony Franks. On completing her studies she was awarded the David Gordon Memorial Trust Prize and Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship. In 1979-80 she spent eight months travelling in the USA where she researched South-West Native American prehistoric ceramics and visited pueblos. She met with contemporary West Coast potters, including Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, Ron Nagle, Michael Frimkess and Viola Frey. In New Mexico she visited Ken Price and Rick Dillingham in their studios and in Oregon she took part in workshops with Paul Soldner, Stephen De Staebler and Betty Feves.

From 1980 to 1983 she studied ceramics at the Royal College of Art in London. Her tutors there included Professor Lord David Queensberry, Philip Rawson, Eduardo Paolozzi and Gillian Lowndes.

Residencies
2014 Guest artist in residence Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan 2015 Guest artist in residence Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan 2018 Artist in residence Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan 2019 Guest artist in Residence, Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Mashiko, Japan

Major exhibitions
Jennifer Lee has had retrospective exhibitions of her work at the Röhsska Museum in Göteborg, Jennifer Lee - Handbyggda Stengodskärl 1979-1993, Sweden in 1993, Aberdeen Museums and Art Galleries, Jennifer Lee - Handbuilt Ceramics 1979-1994, Scotland in 1994. In 2009 Lee was invited by Issey Miyake to exhibit in a three-person exhibition alongside Lucie Rie and Ernst Gamperl at the Miyake Issey Foundation gallery 21 21 DESIGN SIGHT in Tokyo. 'U-TSU-WA'. The installation was designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. In 2019 Lee had a major exhibition of ceramics and drawings at Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge, Jennifer Lee: the potter’s space curated by Sarah Griffin and exhibition design by the architect Jamie Fobert.

Jennifer Lee lives and works in London and regularly exhibits in the UK and Japan.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to ceramics.

Selected museum exhibitions
2019 - Salisbury Collection of Studio Ceramics, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. 2019 - Modernity & Elegance: The British Collection by Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, and Jennifer Lee, The Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, Japan. 2019 - POTs-the Vessel, The National Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand. 2019 - 75th Scripps College Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College Claremont, California, US. 2018 - The Diana Reitberger Collection, The Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada. 2018 - The Dramatic Vessel, Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka, Japan. 2018 - LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2018, Design Museum, London, UK. 2018 - Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Ceramics, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. 2018 - Handheld, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut, US. 2017 - The Ehrlich Collection of American and British Ceramics, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, US. 2017 - Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Ceramics, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US. 2017 - The Dramatic Vessel, The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, Japan. 2015 - Vessels: The Spirit of Modern British Ceramics, Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan. 2014 - Toward a DESIGN MUSEUM JAPAN, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo, Japan. 2014 - British Ceramics from Bernard Leach to New Generation, The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, Japan. 2013 - International Ceramics, Verkehr Museum, Shizuoka, Japan. 2013 - Friendship Forged in Fire: British Ceramics in America, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California, US. 2011 - Contemporary British Studio Ceramics, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, US. 2009 - U-Tsu-Wa, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo, Japan. 2009 - The CellMark Collection, Röhsska Museet, Göteborg, Sweden. 2008 - British Studio Ceramics - 20th Century Transformations, Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury, UK. 2006 - Puur Klei, Pottenbakkers Museum, Tegelen, The Netherlands. 2005 - Modern Pots: Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and their Contemporaries, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK. 2004 - European Ceramics, Westerwald Museum, Germany. 2003 - British Studio Ceramics, Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury, UK. 2002 - Ceramic Modernism: Hans Coper, Lucie Rie and Their Legacy, The Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada. 2001 - Modern Pots, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK. 2001 - Bengt Julin’s Ceramics, Gustavsbergs Porslinsmuseum, Sweden. 2000 - Britisk Keramik.2000.dk, Keramikmuseet Grimmerhus, Denmark. 2000 - Color and Fire, Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics 1950-2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (touring), US. 1999 - Current Context - New Ways of Seeing, Royal Museum, Edinburgh, UK. 1999 - Clay into Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US. 1998 - Gestaltendes Handwerk, Munich, Germany. 1998 - Collecting Craft, Hove Museum & Art Gallery, Hove, UK. 1998 - Spirit of the Times, Bowes Museum, Durham, UK. 1996 - Design im Wandel: Produkte, Fetische, Rituale, Übersee Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Bremen, Germany.

Solo exhibitions from 2008
2019 Jennifer Lee: the potter's space, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge. 2019 Jennifer Lee: A personal selection, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. 2019 Jennifer Lee: Works from a Private Collection, Erskine, Hall & Coe. 2018 Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto. 2017 Gallery LVS, Seoul. 2016 Erskine, Hall & Coe, London. 2015 Jennifer Lee - Ceramics made in Shigaraki and London, Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto. 2015 Jennifer Lee, Tada no yume deshou ka, The Institute of Ceramic Studies Gallery Shigaraki. 2013 Erskine, Hall & Coe, London. 2012 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Los Angeles. 2010 Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney. 2009 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Los Angeles. 2008 Galerie Besson, London.

Public collections
Jennifer Lee's work is held in these collections Canada Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto Germany Europäisches Kunst Handwerk Landesgerwerbeamt, Stuttgart. Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg. Leipzig Museum of Applied Arts. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg. Japan The Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo. Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts. Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Mashiko. The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki. New Zealand Hawke's Bay Museum & Art Gallery, Napier. North America Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, New York. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California. Long Beach Museum of Art, California. Long House Reserve Collection, New York. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania. Scripps College, Claremont, California. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. South Korea Amorepacific Museum, Seoul. Sweden CellMark, Göteborg. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Röhsska Museum, Göteborg. Switzerland Musée Bellerive, Zurich. Musée Ariana, Geneva. United Kingdom Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. British Museum. Buckinghamshire County Museum. Contemporary Art Society, London. Crafts Council Collection, London. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Glasgow Museum and Art Galleries. The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield. Hove Museum and Art Gallery. Leeds City Art Gallery. Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. National Museum Wales. Norwich Castle Museum. Peters Foundation, London. Royal Museum, Edinburgh. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia. Scottish Collection, SDA, Edinburgh. Thamesdown Collection, Museum and Art Gallery, Swindon. Trustees Savings Bank Collection, London. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.