STATEMENT
My work centres on the desire to belong — the feeling of alienation, the need for approval, and the search for acceptance. I explore identity as performance, shaped by social power and the challenge of embracing difference. These ideas come from my experience growing up queer, feeling out of place, and longing for safety. But these feelings — shame, insecurity, the need to be seen — are widely shared and echo within the art world itself.
Animals often appear in my work. They can be friendly and naive, but also strange or uncanny. I see them as both comforting and cautionary: eager for love but also abject. Mythological and occult references reveal that they inhabit an alternate and personal inner world.
I work mainly in ceramic stoneware, combining handbuilding with wheel-thrown forms, which I alter and decorate. I’m drawn to ceramic for its contradictions: practical yet precious, familiar yet refined. It’s both kitsch and cultured — a queer medium in its own right, reflecting many of the tensions I explore.
I live and work in Brighton, East Sussex
Born 1971 in London, United Kingdom
EDUCATION
1990-94 BFA, Studio Art; Concordia University; Montréal, Canada
EXHIBITIONS
2026 Odyssey, Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, East Sussex
2026 Open Call Exhibition, Kellie Miller Arts, Brighton, East Sussex
2025 Roots & Routes, The Vault, Brighton, East Sussex
2025 Soft Territories, Pup and Tiger, Online
2025 Art Pride, Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket, Suffolk
2024 Robertson Yard Winter Open Studios; Brighton, East Sussex
1994 Bang!: Vlad Cohen and Ernest Harris; Niagara Artists’ Centre; St. Catharines, Canada
1994 Viewfinders: Loren Williams and Vlad Cohen; VAV Gallery; Concordia University; Montréal, Canada
1993-94 London Life Young Contemporaries 1993; London Regional Art and Historical Museum; London, Canada; Beaverbrook Art Gallery; Fredericton, Canada; Illingworth-Kerr Gallery; Calgary, Canada; and Rodman Hall Arts Centre; St. Catharines, Canada
1993 Visions of Hell, (in conjunction with 3 Weeks of Hell at Studio ‘C’); Studio ‘C’; Montréal, Canada
1993 Concordia University Undergraduate Student Exhibition; Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery; Concordia University; Montréal, Canada
1993 Group Exhibition and Auction; Galerie Optica; Montréal, Canada
1992 L’Art 92: Académique?; Galerie Volante; Montréal, Canada
1991 The Tea House/Salon de Thé; VAV Gallery; Concordia University; Montréal, Canada
1989 Group Exhibition and Auction; Niagara Artists’ Centre; St. Catharines, Canada
1988 Group Exhibition and Auction; Niagara Artists’ Centre; St. Catharines, Canada
RELATED EXPERIENCE
1994-96 Member, +Action+, Committee for “Day Without Art”; Montréal, Canada
1992-95 Board member and Secretary; Optica; Montréal, Canada
1989 Assistant Curator; Rodman Hall National Exhibition Centre; St. Catharines, Canada
1987-89 Member and volunteer; Niagara Artists’ Centre; St. Catharines, Canada
PUBLICATIONS
Lacelle, Mario, and Catherine Marois. Art ‘92: Académique?. Montréal: Galerie Volante, 1992.
Lord, Barry. London Life Young Contemporaries 1993. London, Canada: London Regional Art and Historical Museums, 1993.