Artist

Pollyanna Johnson

Since graduating with a Masters from the Royal Drawing School, Pollyanna has been creating drawings, oil paintings, and ceramics. Her current works are primarily decorative ceramic pieces. Her work sells internationally and has been featured in House and Garden, Harper’s Bazaar, and Idler among others.

Her initial influences when she started working with ceramics were English delftware for its simple and decorative monochromatic designs. She enjoys the juxtaposition of 17th/18th-century female portraits on antique-shaped ceramics with humorous contemporary graphic phrases and slogans that mock the patriarchy and gender inequality in the art world.

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Pollyanna's Style

Some of her pieces come from a place of disquiet, inspired by her and others experiences of sexism. Overall, however, she aims to poke fun at some of the absurdities of society, and having fun with paintings of women that she loves.

She is often inspired to make a ceramic piece after seeing a particular shape or design in a museum collection like the V&A, or in an antique shop. She then reinterprets this in her own style in clay. In the time it takes to make, dry and fire the piece to bisqueware she then decides what she wants to paint on it. She uses white clay and slip with bright underglaze colours, and a transparent glaze to gain the texture and finish desired for her pieces.

Read A Maker’s Story: saints, sexism, rebels and relics in the subversive ceramics of Pollyanna Johnson and Joseph Dupré on Inigo

"I am a painter using ceramics as my canvas, creating beautiful objects inspired by women from art history. I promote these women to the centre of attention, transporting them from the dusty backgrounds of paintings by Old Masters..." - Pollyanna Johnson

AVAILABLE ARTWORKS

Shop by Collection

March Drop 2023

"A melting pot of history from medieval illuminated manuscripts to nurseryware from the 1900s." - Pollyanna Johnson, It Still Might Never Happen

Drop 5 - Winter 2022

"Unsmiling faces on delicate objects that have a quiet contempt" - Pollyanna Johnson, I Smile For Me

Drop 4 - Autumn 2022

"Tongue in cheek or arse and tits, the absurdity of sexism on subversive ceramics." - Pollyanna Johnson, Catcalls and Other Animals

Drop 3 - High Summer 2022

"Striving to find a balance between creating an idea of play and silliness alongside a sense of these objects being an artefact of our time." - Pollyanna Johnson, Penny For My Thoughts

Drop 2 - Summer 2022

"I love the idea of creating pieces that at first glance look like an antique. The present day relevance of them then becomes clear through the feminist content or 3D elements.

Four plates from the collection are inspired by plates made for children in the 1900s, traditionally adorned with the alphabet or a merry rhyme. I wanted to create unassuming works that charm the viewer, prompting laughter or surprise through the messages they carry. Some of the other pieces are inspired by 16th century Italian majolica, encompassing the contrast of blue and yellow with ribbons of text overlaid. I have also been experimenting with clay and 3D elements on the pieces; although they are plates I usually think of them as sculpture or a canvas to be painted on." - Pollyanna Johnson, Fortune Favours The Bold

Hounded

"‘Don’t tell me to FUCKING smile!’ Is what I would say if I wasn’t lost for words when a stranger tells me to ‘Smile’, so the best I can do is to paint it on a plate. Failing to tell the offender to Fuck off, you could transform into a Laurel tree like Daphne." - Pollyanna Johnson, Hounded

Drop 1 - New Year 2022

Continuing on from her previous collection with Partnership Editions, this new collection of works continues to pay homage to women in art history.

Taking inspiration from 16th century ceramics, as well as letting the clay playfully shape the works, each piece introduces you to a woman from art history. As Pollyanna converses with these women, their characters emerge, and breathe life into the ceramic objects; the simple but iconic cobalt blue enabling her to emphasise the textures and details from their portraits. - Let Me Introduce To You by Pollyanna Johnson

Cheer Up Love

For this limited edition run of 100 plates, Pollyanna brings a modern twist to traditional motto plates, the 16th-17th century blue and white Delft style party pieces with verses and sayings written upon them. She updates this ceramic pieces by using the catcall 'Cheer Up Love', poking fun at the patriarchy and some of the absurdities of society.

In The Flesh

This curation is on show at our exhibition 'In The Flesh'. It was on display at 105 Pimlico Road, SW1W 8NQ from 25th November to 19th December 2021. This will be the first time that the artists of Partnership Editions have come together in a physical space since lockdown has lifted, and it celebrates the very fact that we're able to see their works in person again. We embrace the many purposes of an exhibition: a way to unite artists and collectors, and an opportunity to engage with both people and art - something we've all been deprived of for too long. The works in this exhibition have been selected based on their exceptional skill and power to communicate. See their colours, their textures, experience their emotions, let them get under your skin...in the flesh.

Eyes That Follow You

"The eyes of the elders leering over Susannah, the eyes of the stranger in the gallery trained on the woman breastfeeding, the eyes of cat caller on the street, the eyes of society on women, the eyes of the portraits in the gallery. This collection of decorative ceramic pieces playfully challenges the viewer to confront many of the experiences of being a woman. Poached from the frames of some of my favourite paintings, the women that feature on my ceramics are placed centre stage." - Pollyanna Johnson, Eyes That Follow You

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