Diana Chamberlain is a ceramist working out of her home studio in Philadelphia. She moved to Connecticut from the U.K. in the early 1980s and then to Philadelphia in the fall of 2019. Her fine art training was at St. Martins School of Art, London, and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.
She transitioned from painting and printmaking to ceramics two decades ago. “I like that sculptural ceramics are part of the architectural fabric of our homes,” she says. "We set our tables with ceramic plates and dishes. We start our day with coffee or tea from a favorite mug or cup. Clay is integral to our lives.”
Her series of teapots provides a starting point to explore and have fun with form. She has produced other objects for daily use, including vases, cups, mugs, jars, pitchers, tiles and coasters, and planters for the garden.
Her white dress vases, with their suggestion of movement and narrative, are often commissioned. They make the perfect gift for a bride, reminding her of her wedding dress when the actual dress is packed away.
A consistent theme of her work is home and community. “My current series of city buildings juxtaposes the hardness of brick and stone with the exuberance of plant life,” she says. “These pieces reflect the changing role of home in our lives as well as the importance of coexisting harmoniously with nature.”
Diana is a Guild Member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan, CT, an associate member of the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA, and an associate member of the Clay Studio in Philadelphia.
Her work has been included in group shows at Rye Art Center (NYC), Katonah Museum of Art (NYC), Parallax Art Fair (NYC), New Britain Museum of Contemporary Art (New Britain, CT), Guilford Art Center (Guilford, CT), Slater Memorial Museum (Norwich, CT), Silvermine Guild Art Center (New Canaan, CT), Westport Art Center (Westport, CT), Washington Art Center (Washington Art Center, CT), Ridgefield Guild of Artists (Ridgefield, CT), University of Connecticut, New Haven Paint & Clay Club (Whitneyville, CT), Nest Arts Factory (Bridgeport, CT), Art Space (New Haven, CT), and Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT). Solo shows include Fenn Gallery (Woodbury, CT) and Carver Hill Gallery (Rockland, ME).
The Yale University Museum Store gave Diana a solo show and carried her work, and she has participated regularly in Wilton Historical Society’s Annual American Artisan Show as well as the annual Clay Way Studio Tour in Northwestern CT. She was juried into Clay Studio’s Small Favors Show in May 2021 and into CraftForms 2021 at Wayne Art Center in Pennsylvania, December 2021 through January 2022. Diana's piece, Working From Home, is currently on show in the intermational juried exhibit, Ceramics Biennial 2022, at Guilford Art Center in Guilford, Connecticut, through August 1.
Diana’s work is in private collections in the United States and overseas.
"Clay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of and prayed with." Artist Rose B. Simpson, an enrolled member of the Santa Clara Pueblo, based south of Espanola in New Mexico.
"Pots are some of the earliest artefacts created, and the span of our cultures can be traced through bowls and vases, dishes and beakers, made, glazed and decorated with lyricism and with vigour. They have been made to celebrate rituals of birth, marriage and death, and to be part of the rhythm of the solitary and social acts of eating and drinking." Edmund de Waal, in The Pot Book.