Born in 1960 in Cape Town, South African ceramicist Katherine Glenday studied fine arts, majoring in ceramics and English. She has pursued a dedicated exploration of clay, particularly porcelain’s wide range of expressive qualities. Informed by the visual arts, her works are often made in series, exploring themes of belonging and interbeing while examining the ancestral and cultural legacies she was born into.

Glenday has developed a cohesive body of work comprised of delicate vessels, both thrown on the wheel and slip cast. Many of her series accentuate porcelain’s lightness and translucence while other works highlight the interplay of earthy tones of clays dug in South Africa. She also works in richly stained coloured porcelains arranging installations of richly coloured works which become evocative of paintings.

Her vessels defy stereotypical classification. They embody form and function, the sacred and the profane. They serve as symbols and metaphors while maintaining their implicit function as containers of air, liquid, sound, and silence. The sculptural forms become the translucent and transparent skins between the material and the immaterial, inviting contemplation of the spaces they inhabit.

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024
'In Colour', Ateliers Courbet, New York, United States of America

2023
‘Ancestral Houses’, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
Ateliers Courbet, New York, United States of America

2021
‘Relationalities’, Ateliers Courbet, New York, United States of America

2019
‘Between’, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
Les Ateliers Courbet, New York, Unites States of America


2014
‘This Personal and This Particular’, The Forge, Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2008
‘Movement to Light’, Amaridian Gallery, New York, United States of America


2001
‘Tuning Narcissus’, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa


1997
The Kim Sacks Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2025
'United State', Southern Guild, Los Angeles, United States of America
'To Have and To Hold', Kim Sacks Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sculpture and Ceramics Exhibition, Kalk Bay Modern, Kalk Bay, South Africa
'Material Conversations', 11 on Windsor Studio, Kalk Bay, South Africa
'The Pietermaritzburg Connection', Rust-en-Vrede Gallery + Clay Museum, Durbanville South Africa
'Summer exhibition', Ateliers Courbet, New York, United States of America
LIAGRE X ATELIER COURBET, curated by Ateliers Courbet, Liaigre Miami, Miami, United States of America

2024
South African Clay Awards, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery + Clay Museum, Durbanville South Africa
Design Miami, Ateliers Courbet, Miami, United States of America
Design Miami, Southern Guild, Miami, United States of America
‘Compressing Materiality’, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa

2023
“Ceramics invitational exhibition” University of Johannesburg, South Africa

2022
The Ripple Effect, Conversations with Water. Association of Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
Formed by light and fire, Throw Contemporary, London, United Kingdom

2019
Conversations with Irma, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
First Central Plains Ceramics Biennale, Henan Museum, Zhengzhou, China

2012
SOFA NEW YORK 2012, New York, United States of America


2011
Conversations, Amaridian Gallery, New York, United States of America


2010
SOFA NEW YORK 2010, New York, United States of America
SOFA CHICAGO 2010, Chicago, United States of America


2008
Exchanges, The Forge, Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa


2006
’Sound Still’, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa (curator)


1995
Fletcher Challenge, Auckland, New Zealand


1992
International Exhibition of Ceramics, Taipei, Taiwan


1985
Recent South African Ceramics, Johannesburg Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

RESIDENCIES

2006 -2024
Annual Residency with Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky (Goedgedacht farm, Cedar Peak Western Cape, and Poppiano Italy.)

2004
Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), resident artist, Oudtshoorn

1993
National Arts Festival, resident ‘craft artist’, Grahamstown

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg
King George IV Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth
William Humphries Museum, Kimberly
Museum of Art and Design, New York
Iziko Museum, Social History Collections, Cape Town
The Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg
Rust-en-Vrede Clay Museum, Durbanville