Julian Stair is a potter and writer. Concerned with questions of functionality and site-specific installation, his work re-examines familiar historical pottery idioms within a contemporary context and celebrates the social, cultural and multi-sensory aspect of pottery. Julian’s exhibition Quietus: The vessel, death and the human body, opens at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in July 2012, before touring to The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and Winchester Cathedral in 2013.
Julian has exhibited internationally over the last 30 years and has work in over 20 public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, British Council, American Museum of Art & Design, Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Netherlands. In 2004 he was awarded the European Achievement Award by the World Crafts Council and in 2008 the Art Fund purchased Monumental Jar V for Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.
In 2002 Julian completed a PhD at the Royal College of Art researching the critical origins of English studio pottery. He is currently a Principle Research Fellow at the University of Westminster. He has been a regular contributor to craft journals for over 20 years including the essay ‘The Employment of Matter: Pottery of the Omega Workshop’ for the exhibition Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2009.
