Chappel Galleries
Contemporary Fine Art
Established 1986
T: +44 (0) 1206 240326
E: info@chappelgalleries.co.uk
Chappel Galleries
Contemporary Fine Art
Established 1986
T: +44 (0) 1206 240326
E: info@chappelgalleries.co.uk
Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm or by appointment
Sizes quoted are of artworks. Where enquiries of prices are made on the gallery, the work is subject to availability and the price to change.
Etchings: Prices include frames—the plates are printed on paper—paper sizes vary.
Unframed printed etchings, where available: the additional price of framing to be confirmed.
Ursula was my star student when I taught etching in the printmaking department at Goldsmiths College of Art, London. Hot foot from learning various experimental techniques taught me primarily by Antony Harrison and Merlyn Evans at the Central School of Art (as it then was) and subsequently at The Atelier 17 of Stanley William Hayter in Paris, I was keen to pass on my knowledge to the students in the etching department at Goldsmiths. In Ursula I found an artist eager to experiment and to interpret in her own way the various techniques, deep etching a plate to a depth, in some cases where the plate could be left without ink and the surface could then be rolled with a colour, leaving a white emboss created by the depth of the etched part of the plate. Or, etching to two different levels where the deepest level could be inked in one colour, the second level another using a soft roller which would touch down on the first level and a harder roller which would colour the surface. Depending on the viscosities of the inks the colours on the two surfaces would either combine on the top surface or leave two pure different colours on each surface. Ursula combines these techniques with a characteristic linear sense which leads to a uniquely strong image enhanced by a pure use of colour. The result is very much her own voice, strong, independent and original.
Sally McLaren RE 2024
I create unique hand-built vessels which are first biscuit fired and then smoked. Over the years, I have developed an idiosyncratic way of "drawing with smoke". I cover the pot with slip and incise lines which then are exposed to smoke. The slip is then removed and reveals dark, smoked lines on the surface of the pot.
This process results in the expression of a personal response to my experience of travels in Greece. There, the evidence of cultural origins, the land, its nature and its architecture have greatly shaped my visual language. I relate these elements to the forms, structures and surfaces that are developed during the process of building the pot. Thus birds, trees, skies and land emerge out of slips, pigments and fire.
Ursula Ströh-Rubens
Born in Kiel, Germany
1961-65 Studied Art in London at Goldsmiths' School of Art, specialising in Ceramics under David Garbett, (also Etching)
1965-66 Postgraduate diploma in Ceramics and Etching
1967-93 Part-time lecturer at Goldsmiths' College
2022
‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, The Longshed, Woodbridge, Suffolk
‘Borders’, Ipswich and Colchester Art Society, Ipswich Art Gallery, Ipswich, Suffolk
Runes, Moons and Sorcery Group Exhibition at Chappel Galleries: paintings by three artists; sculptor in stone; ceramics by Ursula Ströh-Rubens
2021
‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, Pond Gallery, Maltings, Snape, Suffolk
‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, The Longshed, Woodbridge, Suffolk
‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, Guildhall, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
2019 ‘Group Exhibition’, Gallery East, Woodbridge, Suffolk
2018 ‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
2017 ‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
2016 ‘Suffolk Craft Society Exhibition’, Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
2015 ‘Watercolours by Michael Coulter and Ceramics by Ursula Ströh-Rubens’, Hayletts Gallery, Malden, Essex
2013 ‘Christmas Exhibition’, Re+new Gallery, Woodbridge, Suffolk
2012 ‘Christmas Exhibition’, Reunion Gallery, Felixstowe, Suffolk
2011
‘Handbuilt, Smoked Ceramics’, Craft Co, Southwold, Suffolk
‘Anglian Potters’, The Dolby Gallery, Oundle, Northants.
‘Woodland’, Crooked House Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2010
‘Handbuilt, Smoked Ceramics by Ursula Ströh-Rubens’, Craft Co., Southwold, Suffolk, with Sula Rubens
‘Beneath the Surface’, Crooked House Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2009
‘Earth Matters’, Crooked House Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
‘Nature as Adventure’ for the 3rd International Festival of Postmodern Ceramics 2009,
at Ceramica Multiplex, Varazdin, Croatia
2008
‘Tassen, Teller, Schale’, Handelskammer, Koblenz, Germany
‘The Lie of the Land’, Crooked House Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
‘Colour’, Eyestorm Gallery, Ipswich, Suffolk
‘Halesworth Arts Festival’, Festival Art Gallery, Halesworth, Suffolk
‘Balance’, Bergh Apton Sculpture Trail, Berg Apton, Norfolk
2006
‘The Nature of Light’, Gaston Gallery, East Bergholt, Suffolk
‘Monoprints and Ceramic Vessels’, Craftco, Southwold, Suffolk
‘Rubens 4’, Crooked House Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2005
‘Bergh Apton Sculpture Trail 2005’, Bergh Apton, Norfolk
‘Exhibition’, Byards Art, Cambridge
2004
‘Exhibition’, Byards Art, Cambridge
‘Relative Works’, The Crooked House Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
‘Personal Selection’, Brewery Arts, Main Gallery, Cirencester
2003
‘Handbuilt Ceramics by Ursula Ströh-Rubens’, Haylett Gallery, Malden, Essex
‘Ceramics by Ursula Ströh-Rubens’, Brewery Arts Main Gallery, Cirencester, Gloucestershire
‘3D: sculpture, ceramics and glass’, noble ART Gallery, Cambridge
‘One Off: new and experimental work’, Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh
2002
‘Sculpture in the Gardens’, Wyken Hall, Stanton, Suffolk
‘Sculpture at the White House’, Cambridge
2001
Landscape, Still Life, Ceramic Vessels’, Craft Co., Southwold, Suffolk
‘East Meets West’, The Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, Devon
‘An Exhibition of Work by Selected Members of the Suffolk Craft Society’, Cecilia Colman Gallery, London
2000
‘Three Rubens’, Primavera, Cambridge
‘Views Across the Lake’, Open-air exhibition in the gardens of Blickling Hall, Norfolk.
‘Eurofire: in the land of Liège’, Liège
‘Suffolk Craft Society at Primavera’, Primavera, Cambridge
1999
‘Three Rubens’, Great Eastern Craft Co-op, Southwold, Suffolk
‘Eastward’, Brewery Arts Main Gallery, Cirencester, Gloucester
‘Inaugural Exhibition’, The Carlin Gallery, Paris
1998
‘Ceramics by Ursula Ströh-Rubens’, Woodgates Gallery, East Bergholt, Suffolk
Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand
1997
‘Chair’ (artists’ response to identical wooden chairs), Halesworth Gallery, Halesworth, Suffolk
‘Mixed show’, Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery, Cambridge
1996
‘Three Rubens’, Great Eastern Craft Co-op, Southwold, Suffolk
‘Kettle’s Yard Open’, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Bi-Annual-Arts Show, Leiston Abbey, Suffolk
‘Celebration, now we are ten’, Contact Gallery, Norwich
1995
‘Landlocked and Earthbound’, Contact Gallery, Norwich
Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand
‘Potters at Snape '95’, The Maltings, Snape, Suffolk
‘Raku Too’, Woodbury Gallery, Greenway, Woodbury, Exeter, Devon
Inaugural Exhibition of the New Crafts Galleries, Beatrice Royal Gallery, Eastleigh, Hampshire
1994 ‘Potters at Snape '94’, The Maltings, Snape, Suffolk
1993
Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand
‘Raku Fired Pots’, Amalgam Gallery, London
‘14 Potters’, Torkington Gallery, Stamford
Pots in the Victoria and Albert Museum Shop, London
1992
‘East Anglian Potters, Selected Members’, The Museum, Saffron Walden
‘East Anglian Ceramics’, The Gallery, Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire
‘Poetics of Fire’, Ceramics associated with Goldsmiths' College, Contemporary Ceramics Gallery, London
‘Graphics & Ceramics’, C.C.A. Gallery, Cambridge
1991
‘Alternative Views’, The Old Workshop Gallery, Corpusty
‘A Green Celebration’, Suffolk Craft Society, Aldeburgh
Exhibition, C.C.A. Gallery, Cambridge
1990-1 ‘Looking East’, an International exchange exhibition of contemporary craft from the east of England, shown at Norwich, Ipswich, Koblenz, Mainz and Bonn, Germany
1990 ‘East Anglian Pots’, Primavera Gallery, Cambridge
1989
Cecilia Colman Gallery, London (with Sinika Kotilainen)
Horniman Museum, London
‘Clay Today’, High Street Exhibition Gallery, Ipswich
‘Six and One’, Wells Arts Centre, Wells-next-the-Sea
Trading Places Gallery, Ware, Herts.
Harbour Gallery, Whitstable, Kent
‘Pots and Prints’, Art Gallery, Bury St. Edmunds
‘A Selection of East Anglian Potters’, La Borne & Bourges, France
1988
‘Will it hold water?’, The Minories, Colchester
‘Anglian Pottery Today’, Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket
‘Art and Ceramic’, The Rugg Centre, Cambridge
‘Everyday Heirlooms’, Moyses Hall, Bury St. Edmunds
1987
Artist in Residence, Ipswich
‘Crafts Under Glass’, The Minories, Colchester
‘Raku Pots’, The Amalgam Gallery, London
1986 East Anglian Potters at Cambridge Festival
1985 East Anglian Potters at Lady Lodge, Peterborough
1984 Printmakers of East Anglia, Ipswich
1973 ‘New Ceramic Art’, Woodlands Gallery, London (with Graham Burr)
1971 ‘Töpfern ohne Scheibe’, Galerie Ostentor, Dortmund
1968 White House Gallery, Cheam
1965 Midland Group, Nottingham
1965 Craft Centre of Great Britain
1963-67 Etchings, in the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers, London
The Abbey Art Centre, New Barnet; I.L.E.A.; Ferrens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull; Suffolk County Council; Stadt Dortmund; Henry Rothschild; Wilfrid Trust Collection; Auckland, New Zealand; Gateshead Museum, Shipley. websites: www.craftscouncil.org.uk; www.suffolkcraftsociety.org; www.anglianpotters.org.uk
2014 Featured in article, ‘Home is where the Art is’, Suffolk Magazine, March.
2000 Featured in ‘The Art of Hand-Built Ceramics’, by Susan Bruce, The Crowood Press
1999 Featured in ‘Potter’s Directory of Shape and Form’, by Neil French, Quarto Publishing plc.
1993 Featured in 'Potter’s Companion', by Tony Birks, Conran Press
1991
Featured in 'Moving Arts', Anglia Television Series
Awarded the Anglia T.V. Trophy
Colour illustration in 'Pots for Plants and Gardens', by John Huggins, Batsford Complete Potter Series
1990 Elected Full Member of the Suffolk Craft Society (with whom she shows annually) Lecture, 'Raku and Influences on my Work', Humboldt University, Berlin
1989 Work selected for The Craft Council Index
1985 Selected member of The East Anglian Potters Association