It is not easy to put into words the effect that Halima Cassell’s remarkable ceramic sculptures have on you when you first encounter a well displayed section of her work
– Zachary Kingdom
She set very high standards for herself and was tireless in her efforts to reach them. After just three months she was able to carry out complex, compelling, delicate and dynamic work.
– Helaine Blumenfeld OBE FRBS Dlitt
…Although Cassell is creating in different media – and respecting the unique characteristics of her material while doing so – she is also intent on discerning just how bronze, glass, marble and clay can ‘speak the same language
– Ian Wilson
Cassell’s work encompasses and generates complexity and surprise. All of her sculptural work shares a language of geometry and volume but each is intriguingly different
– Elli Herring
The geometry and the mathematics involved in Halima’s work have the same effect on me as listening to Bach: she manages to get the same essential harmony of shape, form and detail. Her pieces are deeply fashioned, which is unusual in ceramics
– Eric Knowles (Ceramics Expert)
She was sketching constantly and continually sought to transpose her drawings into sculptural forms. The surface as well as the shapes emerged together in sculpture which often combined enormous complexity with simplicity and unity.
– Helaine Blumenfeld OBE FRBS Dlitt
Her main preoccupation and sculptural impulse is to penetrate beneath the skin of the form to reveal the structure within – the crystalline seed of the stone, or the skeleton-like armature she perceives within the clay. She does not carve exteriors but reveals interiors – the folded abstract inner landscapes of her singular and highly imaginative vision.
– Andrew Lambirth, Art Critic - Spectator Magazine
Working mostly with ‘naked clay’, that is without the use of glaze or slip, Cassell first carefully carves and then smoothes and burnishes to remove any blemishes, so virtually making the surface ‘ disappear’, leaving the form clean and prominent
– Emmanuel Cooper
I find her work uplifting, I would never consider buying it solely as an investment
– Eric Knowles (Ceramics Expert)
Halima Cassell is a maker of considerable versatility, who has extended her signature work in clay to a range of new materials, including marble, glass and porcelain
– Andrew Lambirth, Art Critic - Spectator Magazine