Image: Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield
The Hepworth Wakefield has featured a new ceramic work by Zivarna Murphy, 'Spiral Shell Form', through its retail platform, placing the artist’s coastal references and wood-fired porcelain practice in the spotlight. The listing presents the piece within the museum’s Ceramics Showcase and describes it as an unglazed woodfired porcelain form with a hollow interior, priced at £137.50.
Murphy’s work is rooted in the Yorkshire coastline, where she lives, and the museum’s description emphasizes the tactile methods behind her ceramics. Her hand-formed pieces are shaped by cliffs and beaches along the coast, and she impresses rocks, fossils and shells into the clay to build texture. The same source notes that she occasionally uses wild clay from one of her favourite beaches, linking the material itself to the landscape that informs the work.
The shop page also provides some context for the piece’s making. It says that when Murphy learned she had been selected, she knew she wanted the influence she took from Edmund de Waal to be working with porcelain. The page states that her first wood firing was completed in May 2025 and that she was struck by the results. It also records her response to the clay body’s behaviour, describing how it resisted her pulls, drew back and seemed to realign itself immediately after being worked.
The same listing situates 'Spiral Shell Form' alongside other ceramics offered in the showcase, including works by Simon and Hannah Burgess. That wider group frames the piece as part of a selection of functional and sculptural ceramics rather than a standalone product note. Simon’s work is described as focused on everyday life, while Hannah Burgess’s wheel-thrown stoneware is presented as drawing on Japanese pottery and earthy glazes.
Murphy’s piece is also linked, in the museum text, to wider ceramic influences. Axel Salto is named as a major inspiration because of the “vast experimentation, freedom, clear love and passion for trying new things.” The listing further connects Murphy’s work to Barbara Hepworth’s love of the Yorkshire coastline, invoking an image of Hepworth’s pockets full of sea-smoothed stones and textured pebbles.
The page gives the object’s dimensions as a sitting height of 120mm, a sitting width of 105mm, a diagonal height of 143mm, a diagonal width of 80mm and a maximum diameter of 90mm. It is listed as being in stock and ready to ship, with collection offered free and postal and courier shipping rates shown on the page. The shop also notes that the work is eligible for the Own Art scheme, which allows buyers to spread the cost over 10 months through an interest-free loan.
