Lanthanides: Rare Earth Spectra, a solo exhibition by Potter in Residence 2026, Charly Blackburn
7 September – 27 September 2026
We’re pleased to announce Lanthanides: Rare Earth Spectra, a solo exhibition by our Potter in Residence 2026, Charly Blackburn.
We’re pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition Lanthanides: Rare Earth Spectra, a solo exhibition by our Potter in Residence 2026, Charly Blackburn, opening next month at County Hall Pottery.
For this exhibition, we’re briefly taking back our former gallery space in the County Hall building, returning for one month to present this new body of work in its original setting.
Lanthanides: Rare Earth Spectra presents a body of work developed during Blackburn’s year-long residency, exploring the material and optical properties of rare earth elements through ceramic form.
Incorporating lanthanide oxides into her glazes, Blackburn creates undulating forms, luminous surfaces and colour-shifting structures that respond to light and perception. These elements, integral to technologies we rely on daily, are brought into focus, shifting from invisible resource to tangible presence.
Across the exhibition, scientific language and industrial references intersect with organic, sculptural forms. Domes, bulbs and crystalline surfaces emerge, evoking both the microscopic and the cosmic. Colour becomes unstable, radiant and alive.
The works invite a closer look at the materials that underpin contemporary life. What is usually hidden, buried in devices, systems and infrastructures, is made visible, tactile and immediate.
This exhibition asks us to pause. To reconsider the relationship between material, technology and perception, and to reflect on what lies beneath the surface of progress.
Save the date:
7 – 27 September
Open Thu – Sun 13.00-18.00 (outside of these hours view by appointment via gallery@countyhallpottery.com)
PV
7 September, 6–9 pm
CHARLY BLACKBURN
Charly Blackburn is a ceramic artist whose practice explores the disconnect between the resource superpowers on which modern technology depends and our collective material intelligence. Through ceramic sculpture and material experimentation, she celebrates the metals and minerals responsible for technological advancement while exploring their extraordinary effects in ceramics.
Originally from The Fens, Blackburn studied Performance Design at Central Saint Martins before completing a Master’s in Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art. Her work has been exhibited at Messums Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago, and she has co-curated geological art exhibitions including Seismic Mother and Bog Bodies. Alongside her artistic practice, Blackburn has worked as a technical fabricator, design mentor and art conservator.
Her funded research project, Developing Rare Earth Elements in Ceramic Glazing, investigates the use of rare earth elements within ceramics, exploring their magical, luminescent and light-reactive qualities alongside their wider social and technological significance.
https://www.charlyblackburn.com/