Christie Brown studied General Arts and Pottery at Manchester University and Harrow School of Art. Her practice is informed by the significance of continuity and the relevance of archaic artifacts to a contemporary artist. She has a strong interest in the mythological symbolism associated with clay and its relationship with other materials such as wax, bronze and plaster. Her work is primarily figurative and is influenced by our relationship with objects, especially those found in museum collections. To Brown archaeology presents a fragmented narrative of past lives and holds parallels with psychonalysis where layers are carefully stripped away to reveal hidden knowledge.
Having trained in Ceramics the medium of clay has always remained central to Brown’s work. Clay is a transformative material which relates to ideas about metamorphoses, and Brown’s artifacts can be seen as embodiments of transformation and transition through contemporary rites of passage. Brown is now a Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster, where the Ceramics Research Group explores the broadening agendas and interdisciplinary dialogues within contemporary ceramics.
Brown first came to prominence in the 1980s with a selection of slab-built, rather than modelled, human torsos. Since then she has gone on to exhibit worldwide and her work can be found in public collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Musee National Ceramique, Sèvres, and the Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal.