Fired up and original

Off the Plinth at the House Gallery

As part of Camberwell Arts Week, this exhibition of local artists, which includes Antony Gormley, provides a showcase of contemporary works in ceramics.

This might give it a bit of an arts and crafts feel, but the artists here manage to show that fired clay can be both innovative and sexy.

Gormley's Twelve Hours (a segment of the original, larger work) is a troop of 12 tiny marching figures, each bigger than the one that precedes it. The hastily formed humanoids appear as if they themselves are emerging from the primordial clay.

Mia Fernandes's glazed and delicately painted ceramic 'beehive' sacs, are the most beautiful things here. Each beehive hangs from a wall painted with black lines to resemble a silhouetted wood. Gillian Lowndes's artfully conceived Mussel Traps are, on the other hand, rather creepy-looking contraptions.

Contrary to the exhibition's title, Julian Stair has put his work back on the plinth by creating a ceramic shelf on which he has placed two small pots, an acknowledged meeting of art and craft.

Not in the least selfconscious, however, are Rosa Nguyen's ensemble of haggis-shaped vessels in which she has arranged a glorious display of tulips, and Janice Tchalenko's colourful table tops, both of which revel in their practical application.

Further highlights include an art talk this Thursday by TV critic Matthew Collings (The Trivial And The Solemn Versus The Playful And The Serious) and an exhibition by Foad at Camberwell Art College.