"I fell in love with both the material and the vessel as a magical form; but it was a long time before I realised how I wanted to use it...I was seduced by the alchemy of change where you take a material...and it is transmogrified into something else."

Born in Staffordshire in 1934, Henderson first encountered clay after taking a foundation course in Art at Goldsmiths College in London in 1964. He later studied at Camberwell School of Art, under Hans Coper and Lucie Rie. He graduated in 1968 and continued his studies at Edinburgh College of Art before returning to London.

Henderson very soon left the wheel behind and moved to the freedom of hand-building.  Throughout his career he explored clay as a medium in its own right, and said of his work that:

"It explores the significance of what is broken, torn or cut, the ability of single or multiple forms to speak of either compression or expansion, flatness or fullness.  It is a kind of drawing in three dimensions.  I start with fragments - familiar, found, improvised - and then build up to complex structures that invite the observer to complete the circuit, so to speak, by considering such matters as memory, invention and metaphor."

In parallel with ceramics his passion for painting continued throughout his career, with watercolours, gouaches and collages becoming increasingly inseparable from his ceramics.

Ancient cultures, geological forms and landscapes were persistent influences during his career - Avebury, Eden Valley in Cumbria, the Rollright Stones in north Oxfordshire, Orkney, and Manorbier in Pembrokeshire where he had a home for the last year of his life.

Henderson's work is viewable in many international public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, the Kyoto Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Solo Exhibitions

1. Ewen Henderson 27 February - 6 March 2021
2. Ewen Henderson - 2014 Solo Exhibition 6 May - 5 June 2014

Group Exhibitions

1. Winter Exhibition 12 - 21 December 2023
2. British Ceramics 12 - 25 October 2023
3. Small Works, Great Artists 4 - 27 April 2023
4. TEN GREAT WORKS 11 - 28 October 2022
5. Small Works, Great Artists 15 February - 11 March 2022
6. Small Works, Great Artists 19 March - 6 April 2021
7. TEA BOWLS BY 9 ARTISTS - Online Exhibition 15 - 29 April 2020
8. Small Works, Great Artists 18 February - 15 March 2020
9. Winter Exhibition 7 - 21 December 2019
10. 20th Century British Ceramics 28 August - 14 September 2019
11. Small Works, Great Artists 26 February - 21 March 2019
12. British Ceramics 26 April - 26 May 2018
13. Twelve Artists 11 April - 6 May 2017
14. Gordon Baldwin & Ewen Henderson 3 - 23 November 2016
15. Nine Potters - Anniversary Exhibition 30 March - 23 April 2016
16. 20th Century Ceramics 9 December 2014 - 23 January 2015
17. Classic & Contemporary Ceramics 28 July - 22 August 2014