Lot 49 - Kelly Jessiman - Wish You Were Here

Stoneware Glazed Ceramic
2025
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Mercedes Lucy

About
St Leonards-on-Sea-based Kelly Jessiman builds her forms at the family dinner table, and each piece is fired and glazed in her garden shed. She takes a wide range of inspiration from contemporary paintings and ancient artefacts. Each stage is an organic process; the clay often takes on a life of its own, which leads to the final form, and from there, she decides how it will be glazed.

Often glazed with hidden notes written on and scratched into the glaze, overlapped with drawings and good luck charms or superstitious markings warding off evil.

Kelly enjoys the process of pottery and the unpredictable outcomes it presents. Her pieces are experimental, playing with the juxtaposition of neatly made traditional shapes against the organic imperfections inherent in the act of hand-building.

Kelly’s background is in fine arts, where she studied foundation art at Chelsea School of Art and went on to study BA Fine Art Sculpture at Camberwell School of Art.

Exhibitions
2021
Babes in Arms group show, Big Yin Gallery, December

2022
Hot as Hell group show, Big Yin Gallery, June
Burnt Orange group show, Big Yin Gallery, July
A Trip Around the Sun group show, Big Yin Gallery, September
Babes in Arms group show, De La Warr, September
New Colour Now, Livingston, London, November

2023
Babes in Arms studio takeover, The Hastings Contemporary, March
A Room of One's Own group show, Livingston, Bristol, May
FOLDE group show, Coastal Currents, Hastings, September
The Gallerist’s Home, MAH Gallery, London, June
Collection 04, Felt MKII, London, September
The Bedroom and the Study, The House by MAH, London Design Festival, September
In Time group show, Gallery 13, October
Christmas Cracker, Georgia Stoneman Gallery, Castlecary, December

2024
Gate of Entrancement, Electro Studio Project Space, March
Unapologetic Colour group show, Another Country, Marylebone, London, May
Shaped, Felt, Straffordshire Street, London, July
Gather in Gathering, Milieu Studios, October
Served group show, Felt Host, London, December

2025
In Fleeting Moments group show, Secession Gallery, January

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
The work submitted for Art on a Postcard is unusual for me as I don’t usually work on small-scale flat surfaces. Here, I have decided to explore the idea of ceramic postcards and what postcards mean to me—sending thoughts of love, hope, and missing certain special people, added with my usual overlapping of words and images.