Michael Kuipers was born in Gouda in the Netherlands in 1949, and studied at the Kunstacademie St Joost in Breda, and subsequently at Farnham, England. His work, hand-built and constructed, has always been sculptural in nature, ranging from early individual vessel forms to, more recently, large scale art for public spaces.

Part of the 70s movement that broke away from more conventional pottery, Kuipers' best pieces include characteristically austere and concentrated forms. Geometric and twisting, with creamy nuanced surfaces, they are the simplest expression of object and movement in space, unafraid as he has been to say as much as possible in the most distilled language. These are genuinely minimal shapes, but without any loss of vocabulary or feeling. Pared-down they may be, but the work still has a great softness, in its surfaces, curves and contours.

David Whiting