Ceramics Studio: Jack Ky Tan

Jack Ky Tan presents a Ceramics Studio as part of Ikon’s exhibition Break the Mould (25 March – 6 September 2026).

Jack Ky Tan is one of three resident artists who will work in the gallery during the exhibition. Visitors are invited to witness making in action and talk to the ceramicists about their practice.

Jack Ky Tan’s A Ceremony for the Unborn Future (2025) features three ceramic urns drawn from Shang Dynasty ceremonial bronzes, developed in dialogue with AI systems. Collaged and adapted images from the Royal Geographical Society sit behind the urns, inspired by Daoist cosmology. Tan’s work proposes a speculative ritual that asks whether AI could be understood as a contemporary cosmic force. 

About the Artist

Jack Ky Tan is a UK-based interdisciplinary artist working across performance, sculpture, installation and institutional critique. His practice is an ongoing exploration of social justice that blurs the boundaries between, art, law, governance, and consultancy. Looking toward alternative knowledge systems, Tan interrogates the legacies of empire with a particular interest in Southeast Asian and Tropical epistemologies of resistance. His work attempts to rethink our entanglement with the human and more-than-human worlds, and looks towards alternative ways of living and working. Tan will present outcomes from his studio and curatorial research into the ‘Colonial Asian Middle’ at Camden Art Centre in 2026, and an exhibition about artistic thinking in organisational behaviour at John Hansard Gallery in 2027.

This exhibition is generously supported by Jerwood Foundation and Freelands Foundation and ai. gallery.