Clay in Conversation 13: Play

Clay in Conversation 13: Play

This episode of Clay in Conversation considers the relevance of ‘play’ in developing a practice.

Venue: University of Westminster, Portland Hall, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street, W1W 7BY

Date: 16 January 2026

Time: 6 - 8pm (NOTE NEW TIME)

The Clay in Conversation series provide a platform for presentation, dialogue and discovery, bringing together a diverse range of artists with a practice using clay and ceramics.

Each conversation centres on a specific theme - acting as a lens through which the artists present their work in person. The conversations offer the opportunity to dig deeper into the work, exploring it formally, materially and conceptually, from the perspective of the artists themselves.

The presentations are followed by a conversation facilitated by Tessa Peters as Chair which includes a Q&A with the audience.

Clay in Conversation is curated by artist Julia Ellen Lancaster supported by the Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CREAM), University of Westminster.

For this episode we’re thrilled to welcome artists Gabriella Mlynarczyk and Yuki Nakamura.

Gaby Mlynarczyk is a ceramic artist and educator shaped by decades of teaching and making in New York City and Los Angeles. A graduate of the RCA Ceramics & Glass MA 2024 and current PGCert student, they approach clay as a curious companion, an active, thinking material that invites improvisation, experimentation, and a willingness to follow unexpected paths.

Their sculptures grow through gestures of accumulation, binding, and reconfiguration, echoing the rhythms of marine and botanical life and the tangled traces of human impact. Guided by philosophies of interconnectedness, their practice slips easily between the classroom and studio, cultivating spaces where exploration is open-ended, processes remain flexible, and discovery unfolds through touch, repetition, and delight in the unknown.

Recent exhibitions include Material Treasures, UCA Farnham UK, 2025 where they were also Artist in Residence 2024/2025; Future Icons Selects for London Design Week, 2025; Fringe Arts Batch, 2025; Boundless, Mint Gallery, London, 2024 and Porcelain of China, Azure of the Sky, Museum of Fine Arts Jingdezhen Vocational University, Jingdezhen, China. In 2024 they were shortlisted for the Hyundai awards for excellence in sustainability and creative practice (Aesthetics and Craft) and were recently added to the Homer Faber 2025 guide of crafts practitioners and master artisans.

@clay-junkie www.clay-junkie.com

Yuki Nakamura is a Japanese-born, London-based artist whose practice is deeply rooted in clay and ceramic art. Incorporating mixed media, site-specific installations, and digital experimentation, she creates immersive, interactive works that expand the possibilities of ceramics. Her practice challenges traditional boundaries and engages with materiality in contemporary contexts.

Yuki is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Westminster, where her practice-led research investigates materiality, sensory experience, and the embodied, participatory relationships involved in making. Her work explores clay as an agential, collaborative material that shapes and responds to the making process and enables alternative and expanded ways of experiencing and understanding ceramics.

Her work has been recognized with awards including the Pollock-Krasner Grant, the Artist Trust Fellowship, and the Joshibi Creative and Research Fellowship. She holds a BA from Joshibi University of Art and Design (Japan), an MFA from the University of Washington (USA), and an MRes from the University of Westminster (UK). Yuki is a member of the international artist collective ART BEASTIES.

@ynstudioart www.yukinakamura.com. www.artbeasties.com

Tessa Peters is Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Art at University of Westminster, an Associate Lecturer at CSM, a researcher, writer and independent curator. Her curatorial projects include Cultural Icons for the British Ceramics Biennial at the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, and Hove Museum & Art Gallery in 2019-2020. Since 2020 she has facilitated a series of inclusive cross-cultural dialogues, assisting an understanding of issues faced by ceramics practices in different global regions.

@UoW_CREAM https://cream.ac.uk/ceramics-research-centre-uk/

Julia Ellen Lancaster is an artist working out of London and Kent, UK. Graduating from the Royal College of Art she then spent time in Tokyo, researching and exhibiting at Youkobo Arts Centre, Tokyo. Lancaster was subsequently selected for the Leach 100 Residency, St Ives, UK in 2020 as part of the Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada pottery centenary celebrations. In 2021 she was awarded a further residency with Leach Pottery, being one of the first artists to take up residence at the historically significant Anchor studio, the original home of the Newlyn Art School. In 2024 Lancaster was awarded the first international Residency at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Ceramics school, culminating in a sell-out show of new work.

Recent exhibitions include Ground Works, County Hall Pottery, London, 2025; The Whole World In Our Hands, The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich, London, 2025, and is currently exhibiting The Liberty Vessel no.162 at Clink Street Ceramics, London. Lancaster is a selected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors as well as the Public Statues and Sculpture Association.

@juliaellenlancaster_ceramics www.juliaellenlancaster.com

This is an ‘in person’ event to be held at venue:

University of Westminster, Portland Hall, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street, W1W 7BY

All are welcome.

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Host or Publisher Julia Ellen Lancaster