Edmund de Waal CBE

<p dir="ltr">Edmund de Waal CBE is a renowned English contemporary artist, potter and author.<br /></p> <p dir="ltr">Edmund de Waal studied English at the University of Cambridge. He was drawn into ceramics and pottery from a very young age, beginning a pottery apprenticeship at the age of 17 with the renowned potter Geoffrey Whiting, a student of Bernard Leach. This apprenticeship was his formal entry into the world of ceramics, which he pursued alongside his academic studies.</p> <p dir="ltr">Much of his work is about the contingency of memory: bringing particular histories of loss and exile into renewed life. Both his artistic and written practice have broken new ground through their critical engagement with the history and potential of ceramics, as well as with architecture, music, dance and poetry. Edmund continually investigates themes of diaspora, memorial and materiality with his interventions and artworks made for diverse spaces and museums worldwide including The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire; the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris; The British Museum, London; The Frick Collection, New York; Museo Ebraico, Venice; Schindler House, Los Angeles; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and V&amp;A Museum, London.</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr">Edmund is also renowned for his bestselling family memoir, <em>The Hare with Amber Eyes </em>(2010), <em>The White Road: Journey into an Obsession </em>(2015), a quest across continents to tell the history of porcelain, and <em>Letters to Camondo</em> (2021). His latest book <em>an Archive </em>(2025), published with Ivorypress, is an archival gathering together of texts that reflect on both his own family archives and the archives of the writers, artists, and spaces that he has spent years inhabiting.</p> <p dir="ltr">Edmund de Waal chaired the 2024 Booker Prize judging panel. He was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction by Yale University in 2015. In 2021 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and awarded a CBE for his services to art. In 2023 he received the Isamu Noguchi Award for his spirit of innovation, unbounded imagination, and uncompromising commitment to creativity. In 2024 he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.</p> <p dir="ltr">He opened his most recent solo exhibition this month, <em>the eight directions of the wind</em>, at The Huntington, Los Angeles. These installations, exploring the movement of ideas, people, and objects, invite visitors to reflect on the transmission of stories and histories that shape contemporary culture.</p> <p dir="ltr">In 2025, Arts University Plymouth awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Edmund de Waal CBE in recognition of his outstanding international contribution to British art.<br /></p>