Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1941 Sweetland, Manchester, Jamaica

Year of Migration to the UK: 1967

Biography

Ceramicist Madge Spencer was born in Sweetland, Manchester, Jamaica in 1941. Her interest in pottery was sparked by her uncle, the celebrated Jamaican ceramicist, Cecil Baugh. A pioneer in her field, Spencer became the first woman to obtain a degree in ceramics from the Jamaica School of Art and Craft where she studied between 1964 and 1966. After completing her studies and marrying John Rivers, she relocated to England in 1967. The following year, she set up the Portland Road Pottery in Nottingham. As a young Black woman recently arrived from the Caribbean, Spencer found Nottingham to be an unfamiliar place. However, what struck her most was the lack of other Black people in her surroundings. Undeterred, she soon transformed her large Victorian house on Portland Road into a hub for her pottery, with a kiln in the cellar, a dedicated studio upstairs, and a second, even larger kiln in the garden. In the 2010s, she transferred her studio to Hunters Bar in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

Spencer is a dedicated studio ceramicist and, as of 2024, among the few remaining women of her generation who are still actively creating pottery in the Arts & Crafts tradition as exemplified in the 20th century by Bernard Leach. The concept of an ‘artist-potter’ emerged only in the late 19th century. Before, the Industrial Revolution divided potters into businessmen, like Josiah Wedgwood, and rural artisans. Leach, the ‘father’ of studio pottery, sought inspiration in traditional practices, journeying to Japan to find artisans untouched by modernity. He then established himself in St Ives, in Cornwall, becoming highly influential. Spencer belonged to this tradition. Before arriving to the UK, she was tutored by her uncle, who was Leach’s student between 1948 and 1950. Her African heritage also deeply influences her artistic expression. This connection was so strong that when she visited a Nigerian exhibition, she felt an immediate kinship with the forms she encountered.

Her pottery blends Caribbean and English traditions, reflecting both her Jamaican roots and her experiences in England. Her ceramic pieces exhibit a confident blend of organic forms and bold decorative elements. There is a clear interplay between functionality and artistic expression, with both traditional and contemporary influences evident in the varied shapes and surface treatments. At times, she employs earthy tones and contrasting colours that enhance the tactile quality. As Spencer herself explained, all her pots are a fusion of traditions and influences, displaying Jamaican colours with shapes crafted from English clay. As a perfectionist, throughout her career, Spencer destroyed many pieces if they did not meet her exacting standards.

Spencer has regularly exhibited in Jamaica, UK and internationally. In 1964, while still a student and living in her home country, she held her first exhibition of 112 pieces, at the Institute of Jamaica. As her reputation grew, a second exhibition was opened at the Little Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica in 1967 and inaugurated by the sculptor Edna Manley, wife of the then Jamaican Prime Minister, Norman Manley. Spencer’s first exhibition in the UK was in the annual Local Artists’ Exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum. Her first solo exhibition in the UK was held at Nottingham’s Playhouse in 1968, with works characterised by vibrant and cheerful Jamaican colours. Her next solo exhibition was at the same location the following year and opened by R E K Phillips, Counsellor at the Jamaican High Commission in London. In 1985, her work was included in the New Horizons exhibition, which focused on Caribbean craft, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Spencer’s work also featured in the exhibition, Double Vision: An Exhibition of Contemporary Afro-Caribbean Art, presented at Cartwright Hall in Bradford between 1986 and 1987 and which explored African, Caribbean and European relationships in the arts. She has participated in other exhibitions important for establishing Black artists in the UK, including Potters’ Art at the Black Art Gallery in London in 1990 and, in 1993, the Jamaican Winter exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute in London, which was visited by the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth.

In addition to creating pottery, Spencer has worked as a teacher, running many pottery workshops. She has also been a storyteller in schools, libraries, and at Nottingham Castle, Wollaton Hall, and Newstead Abbey, among other venues. Her various awards include First Prize for Ceramics at the Jamaican Independence Festival (1965) and the Holbrook Memorial Prize for Artists (1970). Madge Spencer lives and works in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England. In the UK public domain, her work is held in the collection of Nottinghamshire County Council. In 2019, Mellors & Kirk auctioneers in Nottingham held a sale of her pieces.

Related books

Eddie Chambers, Black Artists in British Art: A History since the 1950s (London: I.B. Tauris, 2019)
Eric Yates-Owen, Robert Fournier and James Hazlewood, British Studio Potters’ Marks (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015)
Laura Tanna and Cecil Baugh, Baugh, Jamaica’s Master Potter (Miami: DLT Associates, 1999)
OBAALA, OBAALA presents the potter’s art: ceramics by Chris Bramble, Jon Churchill, Tony Ogogo, Madge Spencer (London: OBLAALA Publications, 1990)
Robert Hopper et al., Double Vision: An exhibition of contemporary Afro-Caribbean art, exh. cat. (Cartwright Hall: Bradford, 1986-87)

Selected exhibitions

Expressions in 3D (group show), Caribbean Gallery, London (1994)
Jamaican Winter (group show), Commonwealth Institute, London (1993)
Potters Art (group show), Black Art Gallery, London (1990)
Double Vision (group show), Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford (1987)
Madge Spencer (solo exhibition), Contemporary Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica (1986)
New Horizons (group show), Royal Festival Hall, London (1985)
Madge Spencer (solo exhibition), Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham (1968, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972)
Local Artists' Exhibition (group show), Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham (1968 and 1972)
Madge Spencer (solo exhibition), Little Theatre, Kingston, Jamaica (1967)
Madge Spencer (solo exhibition), Institute of Jamaica, Kingston (1964)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Madge Spencer]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Madge Spencer artist