Clay remembers pressure. Every fingerprint, every carved line, every crease pushed into a slab stays there long after the hands have moved on, and that permanence is exactly what draws people into Peter Garrard's ceramic sculpture. The British artist is one of twelve international creators featured in Inspiró Issue 2, and his wall panels and figurative reliefs bring a raw, tactile physicality to the magazine that photography alone can't replicate.
Garrard fell for clay at twelve years old, drawn in by a gay teacher who showed him what the material could hold, not just literally but emotionally. That early spark turned into a lifetime of ceramic practice. Working from his studio in Longlevens, Gloucester, where he lives with his husband, he has spent decades building his technical vocabulary, coiling and slab building large scale figures, then carving into the surface and glazing repeatedly to build up a rich, weathered patina. The results look excavated as much as sculpted, like fragments pulled from some queer archaeological dig.
His subject matter has narrowed and sharpened over time. Where his earlier work ranged across architecture, natural forms, and history, the isolation of the Covid pandemic pushed him almost entirely toward the male figure. Garrard's men are built from contrast: hard muscled surfaces set against visible vulnerability, bravado carved right alongside frailty. He's not interested in idealised bodies for their own sake. He wants the cracks to show, sometimes literally, since the fissures and rough textures in his glaze work read as scars, tension, and lived experience as much as decoration.
That tension between strength and exposure is what makes his work land so hard in a magazine built around queer narrative and desire. Inspiró Issue 2 sits his sculpture alongside eleven other international artists, but Garrard's contribution stands out for its sheer physical weight. These aren't delicate objects. They're built to be touched, to be looked at from multiple angles, to hold their ground on a wall the way a body holds its ground in a room.
Garrard has spent years testing that work in front of audiences who know exactly what they're looking at. He's exhibited with Incla.y in Cheltenham and with Apollo Queer Art across Lisbon, Madrid, Durban, and London, building a following among collectors who want their queer art to have texture, weight, and a bit of grit. His pieces don't shy away from fetish undertones or explicit masculinity, but they're never played for shock value or novelty. There's real craft under the surface, and real feeling too.
For readers of Inspiró, Garrard's sculpture offers something the magazine's photography and illustration can't fully deliver on the page: the sense of an object that exists in physical space, carrying the marks of the hands that made it. Pick up Issue 2 to see his work in full alongside eleven other artists redefining queer visual culture right now.
Grab your copy of Inspiró Issue 2 HERE.
A note for US customers: Due to current limitations with our printer and erotic material, you will need to order from The Male Muse Blurb Store instead of our online store. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Follow Peter Garrard's ceramic work on Instagram at @petegarrard, and see more of his exhibited pieces via @apollo_queer_art and @incla.y.
