Almuth Tebbenhoff

Almuth Tebbenhoff was born in 1949 in north-western Germany. She completed her secondary schooling in 1968 and moved to England the following year. She studied ceramics at the Sir John Cass School of Art (1972-75) and on leaving set up a ceramics studio in London. For the next six years Tebbenhoff made studio ceramics, whilst developing her ideas for sculpture. She also experimented in making architectural ceramics - wash basins, floor tiles - mostly things that she needed for her home which could be adapted for commissions. In 1977 she studied drawing at the Royal College of Art in an informal and generous arrangement with Eduardo Paolozzi, which helped her to develop her ideas for sculpture as well as improving her drawing skills.

In 1981 Tebbenhoff established a studio in a church hall in Southfields, London, where she continues to live and work. Still concentrating on ceramics, she received a commission to make wall and floor tiles for a house designed by Lutyens, Deanery Gardens, in Sonning. Shortly after this she decided to concentrate more on sculpture. In 1986 she started a two-year course in metal fabrication at South Thames College, London - a prelude to developing sculpture as her primary mode of expression. Her early sculptures were monochrome - mostly grey - abstract explorations of space and volume through geometric devices. In 1994 Tebbenhoff began to move towards a freer mode of expression, creating explosive forms in bright colours that have led her to current themes of light, space and the origins of matter. She has exhibited widely in Britain and in Germany since 1981, and has also shown in Moscow, New York and Poznan, Poland.