Ceramics Resident: Professor Stephen Dixon

Professor Stephen Dixon, Ceramics Resident at the V&A, September 2009 - February 2010

We were delighted that Professor Stephen Dixon agreed to be the V&A’s first ceramicist in residence (September 2009-February 2010). Stephen received his Masters in Ceramics from the Royal College of Art, has written and lectured widely. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions and public collections for over 20 years. He is now Professorial Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Visit Stephen Dixon's blog (archived)

Profile

Stephen Dixon studied Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Ceramics at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1986. Early exhibitions in London with Contemporary Applied Arts and the Crafts Council established a reputation for figurative ceramics with a biting political and social satire. Anatol Orient introduced Dixon's work to the U.S.A. in the early nineteen nineties, resulting in solo exhibitions at Pro-Art, St. Louis (1993) Garth Clark Gallery, New York (1995) and Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York (1998).

Dixon combines his studio ceramic output with public and community projects; in 2000 he received an Arts Council 'Year of the Artist' award for a collaborative project with Amnesty International and Kosovan refugees. More recently, he created 'Monopoly', a four-metre long battleship sculpture made of 30,000 hand-made bone china flowers for the 2009 British Ceramic Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent.

His work features in numerous public and private collections, including the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, the British Council, the Crafts Council, The Victoria and Albert Museum, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, The Royal Museum of Scotland, and Manchester Art Gallery.  

Since 1998 Dixon has been engaged as Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University, investigating political narrative and the contemporary printed image in ceramics. He was awarded a professorship there in 2007.