Paddy Hartley is a multidisciplinary artist based in Northumberland whose practice spans sculpture, ceramics and installation. Across thirty-five years of making, his work has explored how material can embody memory, landscape and time, creating objects that investigate the relationship between natural systems and human perception.
The Glazed Landscape chapter draws upon the coastline of north-east England, where geology, weather, tidal rhythms and shifting light are translated into sculptural ceramic form. Sitting somewhere between vessel, sculpture and geological fragment, the work seeks not to represent landscape, but to evoke its rhythms, structures and quiet presence.
Each piece is individually made in the studio through a disciplined process of throwing, glazing and firing, underpinned by an extensive understanding of ceramic materials. Years of testing and refinement have resulted in precise methods of glaze application that enable notoriously fragile glaze systems to produce surfaces of complexity and control.
Collections
Museum of Arts & Design permanent collection, New York
125th Anniversary Commission, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland
Wellcome Collection, London
National Museum of Decorative Arts & Design, Oslo
National Army Museum, London
Gordon Museum of Pathology, London
Corporate collections of F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel & Riga
Anatomy Museum, Paul Stradins University, Riga, Latvia
Museum of Pacific & Oceanic Arts, Riga, Latvia
numerous private collections throughout the UK and internationally.
Selected Exhibitions and Institutions
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London
KODE Bergen & National Museum of Art, Architecture & Design, Oslo. Norway.
San Diego Art Institute, USA
Marion Art Gallery, State University New York. USA
The Wellcome Collection, London, UK
Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, USA
Macquarie University Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Recognition
Sculpture North Prize
The Sculpture Gallery, Leeds (2026). Forthcoming solo exhibition in 2027