Black and white close-up of clay shavings gathered inside a freshly turned vessel

Ryan Barrett

Ceramic sculpture
between clay and code.
London

An orchestrator of controlled chaos. A sculptor of hard edges in naturalistic worlds.

Black and white photograph of a carved, leaf-patterned vessel among plaster blocks and offcuts in the studio

Each piece begins as a digital file, drawn in virtual reality, and ends in the kiln. Ryan's digital coiling method, his own form of 3D clay printing, runs on a coiling system he engineered himself and lays up to 10,000 layers of clay, depending on the designed form. The work is then carved, worked by hand and fired under natural glazes and minerals.

Blue glazed vessel crowned with loose coils of clay, on a plinth

2021, No. 1

Wide vessel rim built from thousands of tiny looped clay coils, grey blue fading to cream, on black
[ About ]Ryan BarrettCeramics, London

About

Raised in Suffolk. Trained at Goldsmiths, London, across sculpture, painting and textile design. Then print design in New York, before clay.

Ryan is a London ceramic artist making large-scale sculpture through digital coiling and 3D clay printing. His forms draw on antique constructions and the monumental shapes of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. His textile background shows in everything: a pull toward surface, texture and the cascading movement of natural glazes and minerals. Self-taught in clay, he set up his first studio in his grandmother's shed in 2013. Work is developed in series, each one a variation on form.

“When you first see Ryan's sculptural work you become mesmerized by its billowing sense of movement.”

John Rigas, Director, Asprey

Selected exhibitions Full CV

  • 2026Curated CeramicsSotheby’s Auction, London
  • 2024Solo exhibition, Surfaces 036Asprey Studio Gallery, Mayfair, London
  • 2023Inaugural exhibitionAsprey Studio Gallery, Mayfair, London
  • 2023Group showOsaka, Japan
  • 2021Solo exhibitionOscar Graf Gallery, Mayfair, London

Press, collaborations and education

  • GQ
  • Esquire
  • Frieze
  • Asprey London
  • Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Royal College of Art
  • Royal Drawing School
  • Hugo Boss
Watch on British GQ ↗
Ryan Barrett working by hand on a tall coiled vessel in pink, cream and grey bands, in his studio
[ In the studio ]
Email ryan@ryanceramics.com
Black and white portrait of Ryan Barrett