It’s a huge accolade to be invited to exhibit at COLLECT in London’s Saatchi Gallery, but Dylan Bowen’s name has long been on the rise. The Oxford ceramicist, who is the first to admit that he floundered under the glare of his own father’s fame, has finally emerged from Clive Bowen’s shadow to make a name for himself with his large sculptural pieces, a lifetime away from the functional domesticware he grew up with.

His new work and direction immediately ignited the interest of the art world with exclusive exhibitions in some of the nation’s top galleries, a fellowship at the CPA (Craft Potters Association) and now a revered place at COLLECT: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects.

Dylan, 46, is the first to admit it’s been a long time coming, largely due to the weight of his Bowen/Leach pottery ancestry. Bernard Leach, his great-grandfather on his mother’s side, set up the pottery arm of the Arts & Crafts movement, while Dylan’s father Clive, a legendary potter himself, set up in Devon in the 1960s where Dylan grew up and did his apprenticeship.

Despite completing a five-year course in ceramics, including three years at Camberwell School Of Art, Dylan became a builder and decorator, unsure of his own path. “I had no intention of being a potter at all, not that I had any plans to be anything else either,” he smiles wryly.

Moving to Oxford on meeting fellow potter Jane (nee Longrigg, now Bowen) who already had an Oxford pottery studio, the pair married and set up shop together on Warwick Street in East Oxford. “I still didn’t really know what I was doing, and my domesticware wasn’t very good really,” he recalls.

Having collected their work for years I can heartily disagree, but Dylan says things changed nine years ago when he suddenly realised what direction to take. “It dawned on me that I had to get on with my thing whatever that was and started making pieces that felt right. I didn’t sit down and think ‘right this is the future’, I don’t think that’s how it works, I just kept plugging away until I had something.

“But I did have a vision, a feeling of potential, about how I was going to work, how I could work and that’s what I’ve been doing. And as a result I’m much more expressive with the clay, my work is looser and more spontaneous, more relaxed.”

With this new-found confidence and belief, the scale of Dylan’s work increased as did its abstract, almost architectural form. “I stepped away from the more traditional shapes I was making and became more three dimensional, and less functional, with enough encouragement from people I respected to think it was the right way to go.”

By encouragement Dylan presumably means the extraordinarily high-profile exhibitions he’s been involved in, such as Galerie Besson on Bond Street, a one-man show at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, a dual exhibition in London with his father, and now COLLECT, making him highly collectable.“It seems to be an accumulative thing but things have certainly started happening. The Bowen and Bowen exhibition at Contemporary Ceramics in Bloomsbury for example was a real milestone because it was the first time I’ve exhibited with my dad. He’s really into my new work and glad I’ve got my own identity now so it’s encouraging.”

So has Dylan finally recognised he’s made it? “No, as soon as you think you’ve made it, it’s over isn’t it? It doesn’t work like that. Each thing is just one more step in the right direction.”

But with his COLLECT pieces costing over £1,000 each you need to be a serious art aficionado to buy his latest creations. “My other work is much more reasonably priced,” he laughs. “But it’s a great honour to be asked because COLLECT is an international platform and garners me a bigger audience than normal, more worldwide than I’m used to. So when asked for large pieces it gave me an incentive to try them out, see if they’d work,” he says.

“When you get an opportunity like this you have to push yourself and venture out of your comfort zone, meaning the best work comes when you’re not totally sure what you’re doing. By the same token you’re not really sure if it’s any good either, or if you are losing your grip. But I think in a way that’s the only way things can be good – when you lose a bit of control. You have to believe in yourself, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it.”

As for the future, Dylan says he’d like to exhibit abroad more. “It’s a big world after all.” But for those of you who want to see him on his home turf, his work is currently on display in the Oxford Ceramics Gallery in Walton Street, at home during Oxfordshire Artweeks and at COLLECT.

It must be a relief then to have finally hit his stride? “I’m happy doing what I’m doing, while having a connection to my dad’s work, and glad that it’s come naturally and isn’t contrived. It’s just taken a long time to develop my style,” he says, in a typically understated way.

And as his ancestral baggage floats away he adds: “People always used to ask me if I was Clive’s son. Now they just ask me how he is. “They can see where my work has come from but hopefully I have demonstrated my own direction,” he says. Then he shuffles back to his workshop, the inner sanctum where he feels most at home, miles away from the world of media, fame and opening nights.

Dylan Bowen at COLLECT 32 of the world’s finest galleries and 11 Project Space artists May 10-13 Saatchi Gallery, London Visit craftscouncil.org.uk and oxfordceramics.com/ Oxfordshire Artweeks From May 18 Visit artweeks. org/festival /2013/jane -bowen -dylan-bowen