Event

Phil Root: Flat Earth

14th March - 13th June
Modern Painters, New Decorators, Aumberry Gap, Loughborough, LE11 1DP

Flat Earth is a solo exhibition by Bristol-based artist Phil Root, presenting new ceramic works. Working with foraged and industrial materials—unprocessed clay, wood ash, and brick dust—Root explores the limits of traditional ceramics through experimental casting, glazing and firing.The exhibition opens on Friday 13 March 2026 at Modern Painters, New Decorators in Loughborough, as part of Lboro Lates.

Root invites clay to behave on its own terms. Whether casting asphalt textures from outside his studio or firing slabs of raw clay dug from a Bristol building site, he lets materials shape themselves—altered by heat, pressure, and time. These works reflect a process-led, site-responsive approach to making: tiles and panels that resist uniformity and record their own transformation in the kiln.

One series draws on medieval tilework found at Ulverscroft Priory in Charnwood Forest—recreated using unrefined construction clay and glazed with wood ash gathered from Bristol woodlands. Rather than depict a forest, Root works with its remnants: scorched bark, collapsed soil, and mineral residue. In another, flat casts of street surfaces become ceramic panels where glazes settle and pool unpredictably, shaped by the heat of the kiln and the sites they were cast from.

Root fires all the work in a self-built wood kiln at Lyde Green Pottery, Bristol—shared with over 100 artists from the UK and abroad. The kiln’s temperature, smoke, and atmosphere become collaborators, shaping each piece through unpredictability and alchemic transformation. Some of the works adapt ancient ceramic formulas used for amulets and beads in Egyptian and Islamic pottery—merging historic recipes with found materials and contemporary firing methods.

Performances

10:00 to 15:00 - Saturday 14th March

10:00 to 15:00 - Thursday 19th March

10:00 to 15:00 - Friday 20th March

10:00 to 15:00 - Saturday 21st March

10:00 to 15:00 - Thursday 26th March

10:00 to 15:00 - Friday 27th March

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Contact

Modern Painters, New Decorators
Aumberry Gap
Loughborough
LE11 1DP
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© Event information from Data Thistle - 2026

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