Michael Eden

Born 1955, Blackburn, England

“I aim to create objects that are seductive and draw in the viewer with their familiarity and then subvert assumptions through their content and materiality.”

A well-respected and established potter, Michael Eden completed an MPhil at the Royal College of Art in 2008, concentrating on the development of a new body of work that explored the abstract qualities of the container. Utilising and developing the combination of drawing, 3D software, traditional hand skills, and digital technology, his research brought together revolutionary tools and materials for the first time and the launch of his Wedgwoodn’t Tureen. Since then, Michael has continued to push digital technology further producing more complex and larger works whilst staying true to his original intention that each piece should be a unique object.

His dynamic, often humorous works are favoured by museums internationally and have recently been acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Museums Scotland and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York

Show More

Working in Cumbria

1972 -1974   Foundation Course, Blackburn College of Technology & Design, Blackburn
1974 – 1975   Industrial Design, Leeds Polytechnic, Leeds
1981 – 2006   Victoria & Michael Eden Pottery made functional slipware
2006 – 2008   Royal College of Art, London, MPhil

“Three-dimensional printing allows the customisation of objects, and gives me the creative freedom to do things impossible with the wheel and clay.

The ceramic container is a form that I am both functionally and aesthetically engaged with. The pots I previously made were designed to drink tea from, to serve food from, and to play an accepted role in domestic life.

Alongside the mechanics of the container, I have become increasingly occupied with the way in which we perceive the relationship between the container its surrounding space. The aim of this work is to put our perception of things in tension with our conception of them.”

Michael Eden has work in the following public collections:

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Aberdeen
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol
Crafts Council, London
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester
Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections, Manchester
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
Stoke-On-Trent Museum, Stoke-On-Trent
The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
The Rothschild Foundation, Waddesdon
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle
York Art Gallery, Yorkshire
Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, Köln, Germany
Dr. Kresz Mária Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, USA
Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Credit: 2017 Cheongju Craft Biennale: Exhibition ‘RE: Craft’ Director – C. K. Lee