Never would I have imagined that a ceramic ashtray could provoke in me the same frenzied response as a designer handbag. And yet there I was on a Friday night, glued to my screen, counting down the seconds to an Instagram flash sale in an attempt to get my hands on one.
This was no ordinary ashtray: it was a particularly debauched one, filled with lipstick-rimmed cigarette butts, gold teeth and empty drug baggies, painstakingly rendered in clay by ceramicist-of-the-moment Alma Berrow.
Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, and Blanca Miró are already fans, and her knack for ‘finding comedy and delight in the disgusting’ has made her so popular that sales have now moved from social media to West End galleries.
Berrow is in the vanguard of young, cool, Instagram-famous ceramicists who are breathing new life into a millennia-old medium with their signature humour, penchant for pushing boundaries and an all-important lack of pretension. ‘Once, the aim was to make “perfect” bowl or mug or vase,’ says Berrow. ‘Now, it’s all about playing around and having fun.’ And this sense of fun is infectious, opening up the art form to a whole new audience.
