Morten Lobner Espersen

As one of the most successful Danish ceramists of his generation, Morten Lobner Espersen (1965) explores the materials of the discipline – clay and glazes – and their sensuous pleasures in objects of sublime beauty.

As curator and author Glenn Adamson puts it in his essay for this book, Espersen is ‘the rigorous maker and colorist, who has learned his glaze chemistry backwards and forwards. He’s also the intuitive sculptor, finding the form as he makes it, and the elusive dreamer, summoning up one celestial form after another, as if from thin air.’ In his own contribution to this volume, Espersen presents himself as an inveterate seeker, more than a self-satisfied finder. Taking pleasure in unexpected results while striving to control every aspect of the glazing and firing process, artistic triumph is as much about failing – delightfully smashing rejected pieces – as catastrophe is about finding beauty in the uncalled for.

Triumph and Catastrophe, the first comprehensive view of Espersen’s unparalleled work, offers a good measure of both.