Extraordinary Creatives

In this episode I’m joined by the extraordinary Wet Mess - performer, shapeshifter, and maker of work that sits right on the ecstatic fault line between desire, politics, embodiment, confusion, and joy. We centre the conversation around their solo show Testo that’s been touring over the past year. It’s a work born from a live, personal question: whether or not to take testosterone, and what that d...

You know that strange moment when you walk back into your office or studio after something big has happened……and it feels unfamiliar. The light’s the same. The table’s where you left it.  Your brushes are exactly as you abandoned them. But you’re not. That’s the bit no one prepares you for. I was speaking to an artist recently who had just come back from caring for a parent after a sudden bereavem...

Today’s guest has shaped the creative lives of millions. Julia Cameron has been called “The Queen of Change” by The New York Times, and whether you’ve done Morning Pages for decades or only heard of The Artist’s Way in passing, you’ve felt her influence ripple through contemporary culture. What struck me most in this conversation was her devotion to simplicity and trying. Her tools are not complic...

You don’t get a medal for exhausting yourself in the name of community. A brilliant artist in my world recently asked a question that so many of you will recognise. Let’s call them Kenny. Kenny runs socially engaged projects. They work with communities over weeks, sometimes months. Workshops turn into conversations. Conversations turn into drawings. Drawings become objects. Objects evolve into sou...

In today’s episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I’m joined by Jenn Ellis, founder of APSARA Studio and a curator whose work moves between institutions, vineyards, churches, theatres, and digital space with remarkable fluidity. Jenn grew up in a family of theoretical particle physicists, studied law, and then pivoted into art history. That background shows. Her approach to art feels investigative, a...

Do you ever ask yourself, why do I keep inventing massive projects when all I really want to do is make my own art? Why do I keep building infrastructures for other people when what I actually crave is to be in the studio, in rehearsal, on a stage? And why, at the end of these enormous, impressive undertakings, do I feel quietly resentful? If this lands in your chest, stay with Ceri and learn how...

Before we begin, a gentle note: in this episode we speak about death, grief, psychosis and depression. If you’re feeling tender, you might want to pause and come back when the time feels right. It will be worth it. Today, I am joined by the extraordinary artist Eddie Peake. Eddie builds exhibitions the way some artists use paint. Space, for him, is a material. He constructs environments that place...

When your brain says - I don’t know who would buy this, I don’t know where to find them. I don’t know how this would ever work, it is lying to you. What if “I don’t know how” isn’t a fact. What if its anxiety dressed up as logic. What if your brain is quietly converting uncertainty into impossibility.  Once that story settles, you stop try. You don´t need to test formats. You don´t need to ask dif...

Today I’m in conversation with the extraordinary Sarah Boris, an artist who treats symbols like building blocks and colour like architecture. Her practice moves between sculpture, drawing, printmaking, painting, and bookmaking, yet everything she makes feels connected by a rigorous, playful logic. You migaht know her Fragile UK Flag, a reimagined Union Jack made from delicate tape and paper, exhib...

If you’ve listened to the last couple of shorty episodes, you’ll know we’ve been talking about structure. What should be on your website. What can go. And how clarity does far more work than cleverness.  So today, I want to talk about what often happens next. Once your website is clear, calm, and coherent, something interesting starts to happen. Sales begin to trickle in. Enquiries land in your in...

In today’s episode of the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, I’m joined by the inspiring Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, whose work sits at the intersection of art, ecology, and emerging technologies. Daisy’s work explores the politics, value systems, and assumptions that shape how humans relate to the natural world. Her projects range from algorithmically designed gardens created for pollinators, to resu...

Today, Ceri moves to the next step of the artist website journey. Once you’ve selected the work and gathered the words, the question becomes: what should definitely be on the website? And just as importantly, what should not.  Most artist websites don’t fail because they’re missing things; they fail because they’re overloaded with too many pages, projects, and text and no clear entry point. Your w...

Today’s guest is Rob Lowe, also known as Supermundane, an artist, illustrator, writer, and public speaker whose work uses geometric shapes, colour, pattern, and words to create playful, philosophical, and deeply generous work. With a background in graphic design and over 30 years working across the creative world, Rob has moved fluidly between indie magazine design, publishing, murals, community-l...

Despite what we’re told, websites are not obsolete. Curators still look at them. Gallerists still look at them. Collectors still look at them. Commissioners still look at them.  Quietly. Carefully. Often before they ever contact you. Your website is where people go when they’re deciding whether to take you seriously. Social media shows momentum. Websites show coherence. If your website feels overw...

What if artists aren’t here to fix the world, but to reveal what’s really going on inside it. In this episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I’m joined by Filipa Ramos, a curator, writer, and educator whose work reframes art not as commentary on ecology, but as an ecological practice in itself. Filipa is Artistic Director of LOOP Festival Barcelona, Lecturer at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel,...

Today, Ceri talks to those of you who know exactly what they need to do but still can’t quite bring themselves to do it. Not because you don’t care. Not because you’re incapable. But because the task feels loaded.  It might be an email you keep rewriting. A proposal you keep circling. A conversation you know you need to have. You stay busy. You prepare. You research. You tweak. And somehow the har...

Today’s episode brings together two extraordinary creatives whose work has helped shape contemporary culture through a shared commitment to curiosity, counterculture, and championing unique voices. Ceri is joined by sisters Francesca Gavin and Seana Gavin, each working across different mediums but united by a belief in following instinct and staying close to what feels urgent and alive. Francesca...

There is something quietly brutal about making work that only exists for a day. You build it. You rehearse it. You hold your nerve. The room fills. The moment happens - And then everyone goes home. You are left standing in the afterglow asking a question most artists feel ashamed to ask. How does something this ephemeral actually support my life? Not just my reputation. Not just my sense of meanin...

Today, I am joined by Marcel Baettig, artist, cultural leader, and founder and CEO of Bow Arts, one of London’s most influential arts and education charities. Over three decades, Marcel has quietly built a values-led social enterprise that provides affordable studios and housing for artists, reaches tens of thousands of young people, and continually reinvests in local communities. This conversatio...

Welcome to episode 179 of the Extraordinary Creatives podcast - Should You Quit Your Job to Be an Artist?  There’s a moment every artist fantasises about. The email sent. The notice handed in. The clean break. Finally, time, headspace, freedom. But more time doesn’t automatically mean better work. Sometimes it means more fear. So, Should you give up your full-time job to pursue your art? Not in th...

Today’s episode is with the extraordinary Eva Sajovic, an artist whose art works provoke questions about labour, value, and exchange. We talk about how growing up with her grandma in the countryside in Slovenia shapes not just what she makes, but how she makes it and how that early encounter with political rupture still informs her resistance to spectacle, speed, and extractive systems.  We unpack...

Today we’re getting into co-representation, the realities of working with more than one gallery, and how to navigate it without damaging the relationships you’ve worked so hard to build. You’ve built a body of work that has momentum. You’ve shown commitment to your gallery. You’ve done the shows, the fairs, the dinners, the follow-ups. And now you feel ready to build internationally. Not as a vani...

This week’s podcast guest is the extraordinary David Horvitz, an artist whose work has been exhibited at and collected by major institutions around the world. Witty, poetic, and nomadic, David’s work traverses photography, artist books, performance, mail art, sound, the internet, food, and natural environments, engaging systems of language, time, and networks. We talk about why artists should resi...

Regulation is a creative skill - Anxiety keeps artists busy but stops them finishing. In the last episode, Ceri talked about the fact that you can't make work from a dysregulated life, that no amount of studio time will compensate for exhaustion, financial stress, unresolved anxiety, or a nervous system that never properly settles. Today, she goes a level deeper explaining why even when life is re...

Today I’m joined by the brilliant Beth Greenacre, a curator, advisor, and art consultant whose career has unfolded quietly but powerfully at the centre of the art world. Beth began working with David Bowie in her twenties and went on to oversee the care, exhibition, and eventual sale of his collection, revealing a deeply personal way of looking, collecting and living with art. Since then, she’s bu...