American artist Betty Woodman began working with clay and paint in the 1950s, initially making functional objects, then gradually developing a deep relationship between the two that explores space, both real and pictorial in art works that combine lacquered ceramics and painted canvas.

Betty Woodman (b. 1930) has spent most of her adult life living and working in Tuscany and in New York. Her museum exhibitions include a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006; an acclaimed exhibition at the Museo Marini in Florence that travelled to the ICA London in 2016; and a large outdoor installation at last year’s Liverpool Biennial.