Amsterdam

Hylton Nel’s ceramic practice, spanning more than six decades, is a journey of craft, curiosity and storytelling. The sculptures and dishes are as much objects of daily life as they are records of it, particularly his plates. Each plate, inscribed with the date of its firing, becomes a diary entry – a marker of time, mood, thought and sensibility. ‘Most of what I make are plates’, Nel has said. ‘The same shape over and over, but like people, each one is different.’ Images, inscriptions and motifs combine with vibrant colours and glazes to reflect the artist’s world, with humour and humanity.

This exhibition focuses on Nel’s lifelong fascination with cats, and includes original sculptures that formed the basis of his recent collaboration with Dior for their Summer 2025 menswear collection. Enlarged versions of his cat sculptures were unveiled in Paris as part of the collection’s launch, and their ceramic counterparts can now be seen in this show. Nel says:

Instead of being blatant and making people, I do these cats. They are also a kind of shape that has been used as an ornament for a long time. From another perspective, being gay is a sort of minority position and at some levels one is not quite what one should be, and so another reason why I make cats is to try and fit into the world because such ornaments seem like regular things.

The exhibition’s title is drawn from De Kleine Johannes, Frederik van Eeden’s classic Dutch novel, a fantastical coming-of-age story that ultimately embraces the meaning found in serving the good of those around us. In many ways, Nel’s work embodies a similar ethos – his ceramics, often whimsical and irreverent, are also deeply philosophical. His practice is one of observation, a way of making sense of the world through motifs both playful and profound.

Though he has lived for decades on the outskirts of Calitzdorp, a small town in South Africa’s Klein Karoo, Nel’s artistic formation began in Europe. He studied in Antwerp in the late 1960s, an experience that left an enduring impact on his engagement with the decorative arts and European ceramic traditions. His references are eclectic, ranging from Chinese blue-and-white porcelain and Islamic tilework to ancient Greek vases and Buddhist sculpture. For Nel, clay is not just a material – it is a means of thinking through ideas, whether political, literary, historical or personal.

First copies of a new monograph, Hylton Nel: Things Made Over Time, co-published by Hurtwood Press and Stevenson, will be available at the exhibition, with contributions by Kim Jones, Tamar Garb and Pieter Hugo, offering new insights into Nel’s life and work.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 8 March from 4pm to 6pm