Alexander Aitken

Alexander Aitken is a Ceramic Sculptor and Draftsperson, born in Kent (1994) and has been living and working in London for the last 10 years. He is currently the RCA’s Griffin Scholar and the winner of the ROSL Prize. In 2018 he graduated from Camberwell College of Arts Sculpture Ba with First Honours.

Alexander's work is self-described as an erratic slime, stuck in a practice of 'negative capability'. He works using fantastical automatic drawing and sculpting to discover, subvert and deconstruct subjects in an iteratively self-referential and reviewed ceramic practice.

Alexander's current practice is studio based, but his forthcoming assignments and planned projects including national and international residencies and research fellowships, will expand his work into new fields with a focus on a nomadic practice.

He has ambitions to work on a larger scale through commissions in the public and private realm. Alex welcomes conversations with galleries and is interested in collaborations with those in the fields of ceramic arts, sculpture and installation.

Select exhibitions: Changing rooms x House of St Barnabas (1 Greek St, London, 2023), Fermenting (Preston Advisory, 2023), Sharp Minds (Special Dispensaries, Norfolk), Amber rooms (180 Strand, London), Loam Lounge (Well Projects, Margate, 2022), Still Life Still (OHSH, London, 2022), Old Friends, New Friends (CEHQ, London, 2021), Breakfast and Dinning rooms (Grafton Street Arts Club, 2021), Amber Rooms (180 Strand, London, 2021), Recurring Streams (Brockley Gardens, 2019)

Intentionally slipping into a new and speculative shadow-history of the landscape. Themes flit from the subtle everyday violences to the expansive agricultural landscape; but all lock in an observed, remixed and amplified surrounding.

Work aims to create eccentric nodes in a pursuit to encourage an audience’s curiosity and to a heightened awareness of the unnoticed and quiet subjects of the local.

Practice is a constant dialogue - fed from public review and directed by what is noticed in works by audience and peers.

Maintaining a stubborn relationship to the ceramic lexicon - employing a sculptural practice that confronts and manipulates traditions, history, time periods, lore and genre using its plasticity to squeeze into varied executions. 

.....I flow blind in the stubborn undercurrents.