Meet the Team: Karin Taylor
We’re excited to launch our first Meet the Team feature with Karin Taylor, one of our earliest members at County Hall Pottery, who has just graduated from the Royal College of Art. We recently visited her end-of-year show at the RCA Battersea campus and were so pleased to see how her practice has developed. It’s been a joy to watch her grow, and we’re proud to share a glimpse of her work.
Karin is a still life and product photographer who began her journey into clay through evening classes, she is a graduate of WAES (Westminster Adult Education Service) alongside her role as a gallery assistant at County Hall Pottery. She actively sought out involvement with the County Hall project to be closely connected to ceramics, learning from the industry and the people within it, while deepening her interest in the handmade and the maker.
out of place; installation
found objects and tarmac
RCA Battersea
At her RCA show, out of place, Karin presented an installation of found objects and tarmac, materials that speak directly to her ongoing exploration of value, context, and attention.
Karin’s practice begins with what others leave behind. Drawn to things found on the street, in gutters, or abandoned in passing, she rescues and reinterprets them, giving new meaning to materials that have already lived other lives.
Place plays a vital role in her work. Each object carries with it a sense of origin and memory, sparking imagined narratives. Through walking, observing, and collecting, Karin builds a visual language rooted in attention. Sometimes an image is enough, but often it’s not. Sometimes the material itself calls to her: its texture, its presence, its “ugly beauty.”
out of place
newhaven, battersea, shadwell
photo: Karin Taylor
Her work takes shape through carefully assembled vignettes and still lives—re-made versions of the things she finds. She is particularly interested in the hierarchy of materials, where a fragment of tarmac can hold the same weight and value as silver. By re-presenting what has been cast aside, Karin explores how meaning accumulates through context, proximity, and time.
Working with found materials, she reconfigures discarded objects into deliberate arrangements. Through selection, refinement, and display, these overlooked items become considered forms. At the core of her practice is an act of attention, treating the mundane as worthy of care, framing, and celebration.
Reflecting on her time at the RCA, Karin describes it as a period that allowed her to fully embrace her identity as an artist and develop a research framework that will continue to support and expand her practice.
And, as she puts it, “it has also been a whole lot of fun.”
You can also view more of Karin’s work via her website
We can’t wait to see what she does next.