Isabelle Nothomb is a Belgian ceramist who lives and works in both France and Belgium. She studied art history in London at the New Academy for Art Studies / Roger Bevan School and worked at Christie’s. From 1988 to 1992, she lived in Thailand and was a museum guide at the National Museum of Bangkok.
She started working with ceramics in 2012 and trained at two studios. From 2019 to 2023, Isabelle studied Theology of Arts at the Catholic University of Paris.
In 2019, she had her first exhibition in London, curated by Preston Fitzgerald, a well-known expert in contemporary ceramics, craft, and design. She took part in more shows curated by Preston in London in 2020 and 2021. Her first Paris exhibition was in 2022 at Argile Design Gallery. She continues to show her work in London, Paris, and Brussels. In 2024, one of her ceramics was given as a state visit gift to President Macron.
In the summer of 2025, Isabelle showed her work at Château Bénat in Bormes-les-Mimosas and at the Zéramika exhibition near Saint Jean de Luz, curated by Ombeline d’Arche, founder of CompulsivArt and a specialist in ceramics, porcelain, and glass. Isabelle’s private Brussels exhibition in November 2025 received high praise from the influential Yoyo Maeght.
Isabelle’s works are part of private collections in France, Belgium, London, New York, and Geneva.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Trained in art history and theology, I have always had a contemplative approach to the world. From childhood, I was introduced to the meticulous observation of nature and art.
This attentive gaze taught me to capture details, to feel the balance of forms and materials. It awakened my capacity for wonder, allowing me to experience profound emotion, to be filled with joy, and to imagine that beyond all these tangible beauties, there is something greater that speaks, capable of touching my heart and conveying a message.
While my studies in art history provided me with a framework of references and rigorous criteria to guide my thinking, my studies in the Theology of the Arts freed me from certain constraints, allowing my perspective to become more personal and to be moved by the senses. This renewed perspective, born from the union of knowledge and experience, gave me the audacity to use a language other than words to express myself through clay.
Being athletic and efficient by nature, practicing art didn't seem like an option to me: I thought I possessed no talent whatsoever. Yet, one day, a phrase resonated within me like a revelation: "Every human being possesses an artistic talent. You must discover yours, develop it, and cultivate it. This will help you reach your full potential and bring you immense joy."
Ceramics has become this point of convergence, this space where all facets of my journey come together: patient observation, physical engagement, spiritual exploration, and the expression of the imagination. Through stoneware and earthenware, I explore the dialogue between matter and time, between accident and repair, between memory and transformation.
My circular works, often marked by cracks, tell the story of this evolution. Each crack becomes an imprint of the process, a metaphor for the inner journey. Rather than masking these marks, I choose to reveal them: gold, mirror, glass, or zinc highlight the beauty of the fragmented; the accident becomes a revelation.
Through these cracks, I seek to express the idea that our imperfections, far from being weaknesses, are instead strengths that shape and transform us. They carry the history of what has been, of what has been endured, of what has been repaired and reinvented. Ceramics, in its fragmented beauty, becomes for me a means of expressing this dialogue between imperfection and perfection, between fragility and resilience.
Thus, each piece is an act of creation that, while striving for a certain harmony, accepts and celebrates the process of transformation. The ever-evolving material becomes a mirror of our own inner quest: a journey where each step, each rupture, each repair, has its place in the construction of self.