Matthew Foster

Leach Pottery Studio Production Manager Matthew Foster completed a 10 week residency in Mashiko Japan at the end of 2024. He lived and worked in the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art: the original work place of Shoji Hamada, who came from Japan with Bernard Leach in 1920 to establish the Leach Pottery in St.Ives.

 The residency included a series of Open Studios, workshops and a commemorative lecture and gallery talk and culminated in an exhibition in Mashiko from 24 November – 1 December 2024, showing works inspired by his time there.

Work from Matthew’s residency was presented in an Exhibition in the Leach Pottery Entrance Gallery during February and March 2025. We are now very pleased to offer the exhibition online. Find out more by following the link button.

Matthew studied Fine Art at Kent University 2004-06. He went on to work at the Millennium Gallery in St Ives.

In October 2015, Matthew joined the Leach Pottery as the second Seasalt Bursary Apprentice: an opportunity to learn and work alongside the talented production team in making Standard Ware. During his time in the Studio he has been able to develop his personal work in a diverse and exciting environment.

His main interest is in form, surface and gesture of making, always focused on the pot’s suitability to its function and aiming for his interpretation of the Mingei Philosophy. He is influenced by potters such as Shoji Hamada, Bill Marshall, Warren Mackenzie, John Reeve and his fellow Studio potters. He has been influenced by peasant stonewares of the Korean Yi dynasty, Gongxian pottery, Tang dynasty Chinese pottery and porcelain pots from the Chinese Sung period.

 “I want to engage with as many people as possible by trying to communicate what I feel, in terms of personal expression in pottery and personality. What I’m trying to do is make work that honestly fulfills the purpose for which it was made and becomes deeply embedded in the life of the people who take it home. I also want the work to look fun and have a personality of its own, hopefully bettering the chance that the user will develop a relationship with it."