Tina Vlassopulos

"Tina Vlassopulos draws visual ideas from organic, natural shape, though, interestingly, drawings of metal shapes are currently fixed to her studio wall. Some of the sprung coil handles of her pots have a feel of a metal shape about them. She is equally concerned to instill the sense of movement and precise balance in individual pieces (as well as in  the arrangements of two companion pots). Here, her long interest in the performing arts is at work. During the making process, she will be immersed in music and sound, and the lithe, dancing rythmn of her work bears out this passion for the performing arts. The pots are made for music and the spoken voice, and as a friend once said to her, ‘the pots look like they’re dancing’.

The pots are all made with an eye to the possibility of function, although this is always balanced by the sculptural strength of the forms. They are pots made contemplatively, for contemplation. The abstract and the organic also combine forces, for example, in a series of pots with a snake-like shape. Others have a more ceremonial appearance, including one new vessel sitting with dignity on a ceramic base; itself finished with a sensual grooved top surface. Here, the abstract elements are pared down to the minimum. Other pots flourish extravagant handles, or rest on these handles with an alluring, lop-sided grace. The pots do not behave in expected ways, yet they are always perfectly balanced, even if the point of balance is at a surprising angle. The new group of work bears all of the hallmarks of Vlassopulos’s style. They are made with a high degree of seriousness, and without a trace of pretension. They are both elemental and contemporary." 

- Excerpt from Simon Olding's review for Ceramic Review