Award is the Biennial’s headline exhibition featuring ten of the UK’s leading contemporary artists who have created new work for the British Ceramics Biennial 2025. The selected artists are drawn from over 180 submissions all considered by an expert panel. Selection is based upon the quality, vitality and significance of the proposals.

The artists share immense creative ambition, using clay with exceptional levels of artistry, skill and sensitivity. From this shared base, they explore topics including the anxieties of housing insecurity, Rococo ornamentation, the human condition and the effects of wildfires on native biodiversity.

The Award Selection Panel will select one artist to win the BCB Award Prize of £10,000 and an invitation to exhibit at the next Biennial.

The British Ceramics Biennial commissioned Elastic Pie to create a film exploring the work of each artist. Watch the films on the BCB Player.

Award artist talks will take place every Saturday of the Biennial. See our Talks page to book.

Kyra Cane

Challenging Terrain compares the relationships and tension points found between maker and material to those between people and the environment. Using the familiar domestic form of the bowl, Kyra introduces purposeful stresses to make evident forces and near-breaking points in the making process.

Artist talk, Sat 4 Oct, 11:30am – 12:15pm

Book here

Fernando Casasempere

The Way Out examines the archaeology of an artist and what becomes of discarded work. Using his own cast-off and broken artworks, he assembles the pieces into hand-built boxes as a documentation of the timeline of his creative journey.

Artist talk, Sat 13 Sept, 2:30 – 3:15pm

Book here

Noor Ali Chagani and Clio Lloyd-Jacob

Existing to be Removed is a collection of fragmented brick buildings precariously stacked on narrow stilts. These structures become placeholders for both a permanent place to call home and remembered spaces that no longer exist.

Artist talk, Sat 18 Oct, 11:30am – 12:15pm

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Susan Halls

Arkitypes is an exercise in repetition. Taking a singular, simplified animal motif and duplicating the form into tall stacks, they become architectural. Organic becomes geometric; legs and bodies become columns and arches.

Artist talk, Sat 11 Oct, 11:30am – 12:15pm

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Leah Jensen

It was Lost in the Move explores the anxieties of housing insecurity. An unsettling collection of terracotta artefacts associated with the moving process draws upon Leah’s experience in 21 different living situations whilst also considering the larger impact that housing shortage has on society.

Artist talk, Sat 27 Sept, 11:30am – 12:15pm

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Charlotte Moore

Blaze to Bloom addresses wildfires in the Tamar Valley, where she grew up, which have caused rapid changes in biodiversity. A ceramic gateway shows an archive of the current plant life, along with a prediction of future growth.

Artist talk, Sat 27 Sept, 2:30 – 3:15pm

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Jane Perryman

Meadow draws on the experience of rewilding an acre of agricultural land, enabling native plant life to thrive once again. She uses this natural bounty to create dyes to add colour to a series of ceramic forms.

Artist talk, Sat 6 Sept, 11:30am – 12:15pm

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Alison Rees

LOOP: Postcards from the Green Belt is a snapshot of green spaces in London and Alison’s experience walking over 200km along the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP). She presents her findings in an installation of 400 ceramic postcards.

Artist talk, Sat 20 Sept, 11:30am – 12:15pm

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Daniel Silver

Family is a collection of sculpted heads examining the tactile nature of materials. Clay serves as the foundation, holding the marks of the maker’s hands and fingers, before layering oil paint onto the surface as a skin.

Artist talk, Sat 13 Sept, 11:30am – 12:15pm

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Jo Taylor

(Not) Guilty Pleasures takes inspiration from the frivolity, ornament and artisan skill of the Rococo period. Her scaled-up vessels are a feast for the eyes with intricate decorative surfaces, bright colours and whimsical details.

Artist talk, Sat 20 Sept, 2:30 – 3:15pm

Book here

Award Selection panel

Alun Graves (Chair), Senior Curator, Ceramics and Glass, V&A 

Rich Miller, Artist and Presenter 

Matt Smith, Artist 

Mella Shaw, Artist and 2023 BCB Award Prize winner 

Clare Wood, Artistic Director & Chief Executive, British Ceramics Biennial

Award Voices

Award Voices has become an established addition to Award, working with Stoke-on-Trent communities to offer personal reflections and alternative interpretations of the works selected. For 2025, BCB has worked with participants of Recast, an ongoing programme that combines creativity, addiction recovery and clay. Through a series of workshops, they learnt about the shortlisted artists and their artwork for the Biennial. A selection of their responses to the works are presented alongside the Award artists’ interpretation.

Learn more about Recast.