A leading figure in English ceramics, Alison Britton was part of a group of influential ceramists who emerged from the Royal College of Art in the 1970s, including Elizabeth Fritsch and Jacqueline Poncelet, whose work sought to re-establish the vessel as an abstract form. Rather than throw on a wheel, Britton hand-builds her pieces by assembling slabs in an asymmetrical, often architectural structure and paints them in energetic gestural patterns, combining sculpture with painting. Internationally recognized as a curator, writer and recipient of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, her ceramic artworks are held in the permanent collections of numerous institutions including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.