Lawrence Epps is an artist exploring the collective attribution of value to objects, processes and people.

His works are tactile and seductive, made predominantly in ceramics, but he has become known for playfully redrawing the rules in which his artworks are accessed, causing both delight and frustration in international audiences as they wrestle with the process of having or not having an artwork, occasionally causing mayhem in the gallery.

His recent installations focus on redressing power dynamics: drawing attention to hidden biases, notions of success and the nature of chance. His practice ranges from traditional ceramic processes such as terracotta extrusion in a brick manufacturing plant and slip-casting, to adapted fairground arcade machines, moving image, and app-design.

Epps’ 2019 residency at the Jingdezhen International Studio in China, developed into Accolade: a collaboration with statistician (and ‘national treasure’) Professor Sir David Speigelhalter, to make an intricate work of chance (slumped ceramic trophies, an iPad app, £2000 of gold bullion and a sushi conveyor belt) which confronts societal biases to re-level the playing field.

He is a founder member of Ambergris Editions with the artist Lisa Wilkens and in 2015 he edited the book the very last time together with the poet Holly Corfield Carr to accompany his installation AGAIN. Epps is also a member of the Sykey Art Collective - a group making public statements through art, responsible for the nighttime interventions of 14,000 ceramic sculptures placed across the cities of London, Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent in large scale participatory art events.

In 2017 Museum Jorn, Denmark, commissioned Take Stock, a major installation from Epps to be part of the critically acclaimed show Ler! / Clay! curated by Karen Friis Herbsleb. His solo exhibitions include: AGAIN at Firstsite, Colchester, 2015; The Shit Job Machine at the The Front Room, Cambridge, 2014; Take Stock, a pavilion at the 2013 British Ceramics Biennial. Group exhibitions include: A Taste of Ceramics, Taoxichuan Gallery, China, 2019; HOOKED, Science Gallery London, 2018; States of Play at Humber Street Gallery, Hull, 2017; the British Ceramics Biennial 2019, 2015 and 2011; Body Double at Meijer Sculpture Park, USA, 2012; FutureEverything at MOSI, Manchester, 2012; interventions in London, Manchester and Stoke 2012. Residencies include Jingdezhen International Studio, China, The European Ceramic Work Centre, Holland, Brownhills Clay Quarry and Ibstock Bricks.

Epps' work is in the collections of Crafts Council and Fitzwilliam Museum.

www.lawrenceepps.com