MAREK PITERA
In 2004, with little prior knowledge of ceramics or art, I encountered a small stoneware bottle by the late Bill Marshall at an exhibition. Its understated presence left a profound and lasting impression and initiated an interest in ceramics that deepened steadily over the following years through collecting and study, eventually leading me to leave my former profession as a medical diagnostician and commit fully to artistic practice.
My practical introduction to clay began at Kensington & Chelsea College in West London, followed by two years of study at City Lit in Holborn for the diploma in ceramics. During this period, my interests expanded beyond studio pottery toward sculptural ceramics, contemporary art, modernist architecture and design, and historic Japanese and Korean pottery traditions. Despite their differences, I was drawn to them by a shared sensibility of restraint, atmosphere and formal clarity.
The following years were devoted to developing my practice independently through material research, kiln building, reduction firing and the refinement of clay bodies and surface. In 2020, I built a dedicated studio in West London containing two kilns of my own construction. Having strong respect for both contemporary sculpture and studio pottery, I did not feel bound to any single tradition and instead sought to develop the most authentic sculptural language for the work itself. I consider the refinement of art as an ongoing and long-term process shaped by experience, reflection and practice.
I live and work in West London from a studio overlooking a garden planted to reflect the changing seasons, whose shifting light and atmosphere inevitably find their way into the work.
