CHRISTINE THACKER

Christine Thacker On Location

5th - 30th March, 2011

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street

(03) 477 7727

info@milfordhouse.co.nz

1. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 1 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 380 x 167 x 130 mm

1. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 1 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 380 x 167 x 130 mm

2. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 2 - Hotel Aotearoa (2010) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 422 x 180 x 128 mm

2. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 2 - Hotel Aotearoa (2010) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 422 x 180 x 128 mm

3. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 3 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 393 x 157 x 124 mm

3. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 3 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 393 x 157 x 124 mm

4. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 4 - Hotel Aotearoa II (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 385 x 172 x 133 mm

4. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 4 - Hotel Aotearoa II (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 385 x 172 x 133 mm

5. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 5 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 412 x 170 x 125 mm

5. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 5 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 412 x 170 x 125 mm

6. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 6 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 396 x 176 x 128 mm

6. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 6 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 396 x 176 x 128 mm

7. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 7 - Hotel Aotearoa III (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 385 x 165 x 122 mm

7. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 7 - Hotel Aotearoa III (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 385 x 165 x 122 mm

8. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 8 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 938 x 175 x 146 mm

8. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 8 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 938 x 175 x 146 mm

9. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 9 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 396 x 178 x 148 mm

9. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 9 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 396 x 178 x 148 mm

10. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 10 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 406 x 161 x 145 mm

10. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 10 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 406 x 161 x 145 mm

11. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 11 - The Source (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 412 x 173 x 134 mm

11. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 11 - The Source (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 412 x 173 x 134 mm

12. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 12 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 395 x 167 x 125 mm

12. CHRISTINE THACKER, Jug No. 12 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 395 x 167 x 125 mm

13. CHRISTINE THACKER, Zentropa (2011), glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x ø): 390 x 180 mm

13. CHRISTINE THACKER, Zentropa (2011), glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x ø): 390 x 180 mm

INSTALLATION VIEW CHRI

ISTINE THACKER, Sea Tiles

14. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 4 (2011) glazed e

rthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 204 x 280 x 48 mm

15. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 16 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 216 x 219 x 44 mm

16. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 1 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 232 x 237 x 48 mm

17. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 2 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 225 x 225 x 44 mm

18. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 9 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 198 x 200 x 47 mm

19. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 10 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 213 x 302 x 55 mm

20. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 7 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 154 x 220 x 49 mm

21. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 14 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 219 x 283 x 48 mm

22. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 5 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 225 x 288 x 48 mm

23. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 15 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 225 x 320 x 47 mm

24. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 17 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 223 x 284 x 47 mm

25. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 11 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 182 x 185 x 44 mm

26. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 6 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 176 x 178 x 46 mm

27. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 8 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 149 x 148 x 44 mm

28. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 12 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 212 x 210 x 39 mm

29. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 3 - Sea of Trees (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 210 x 215 x 46 mm

30. CHRISTINE THACKER, Sea Tile No. 13 (2011) glazed earthenware ceramic, size (v x h x d): 241 x 246 x 45 mm

Christine Thacker is an important ceramist with an international reputation.

Her works are unmistakable, distinctive and the maker’s presence is imbued in every object. Her works use metaphor and symbol, revealing a superb sense of form. Thacker builds through a process of painterly application narratives that traverse cultural dynamics peculiar to NZ (e.g. “Hotel Aotearoa I, II & III”), the experience of journeying countless times between the islands of the Hauraki Gulf (the Sea Tiles) and which also explore the object’s surface, volume and mass.

‘On Location’ has two constituent parts. Thacker’s quintessential jug is a celebration of that most utilitarian object. She is attuned to all of its references and history of use, but the subject matter developed is contemporary and urban, industrialised and landscaped. This use of the surface as a canvas, the development of specific locations and the application of a narrative purpose is developed in the round. In this way, each jug becomes a reinvention of itself – it is no longer just a metaphoric symbol, it is now about living, participating and being. The image of water is used as a medium of transference, linking the city and the landscape across many of the painted jugs. Two jugs have strands of hair falling from the rim. On two others, an interlocking pattern (like fish scales) covers the crème coloured surface as if a skin.

The second group of works, the Sea Tiles, directly addresses the sensation of being at sea. The horizon line established is a key device in this, as is the depiction of the sea as a moving, living, altering, physical thing. Thacker takes the viewer out on to it, using the windowing of two shapes - circular (like the portholes of a ship) and elliptical (like that of an eye) to do this. The subject is the sea itself – patterns emerge, rhythms presented, prevailing wave direction stated; notions of threat rise and fall. Thacker explores the fugitive characteristics of the sea – its colour and energy. Scale is developed with islands shown on the horizon, and the foreground of the sea being visually dominant.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1- 12 13 14 - 30

Jugs 1 - 12 (2011)

850 each

Zentropa (2011)

950

Sea Tiles 1 - 17 (2011)

450 – 700 each

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

CHRISTINE THACKER b. 1953, lives Waiheke Island

Jug (Green Trees Water) (2009)

Christine Thacker is an established ceramicist with an international reputation for innovative form and approach to the medium “The fact that Thacker’s work claims an intellectual approach and has extraordinary tactile qualities is supported by decades of experience with the material and her sovereign way of handling it. The fact that she again and again accepts new challenges is proof of her artistic power.”1 Thacker’s work has a superb sense of form, mass and volume, and her painterly application possesses a subtle beauty. Her forms are often embellished with small medieval icons, runes and symbols that provide a sense of history.

There is an awareness of process in Thacker’s works. Her thick chunky forms are hand-built, roughly hewn using slab and coil techniques. The surface is then painted in an assortment of ceramic pigments and oxides before a glaze is applied.

“Organic growth has been an enduring theme in Thacker’s work…Her approach has always been to start from process. She coils her forms intuitively, not with any image or issue foremost, relying on the relationship between her hands and the material.” 2 Christine Thacker was born in New Plymouth, 1953 and currently lives on Waiheke Island. A practicing ceramicist since 1974, Thacker was employed at Cambridgeshire Pottery, Cambridge, England in 1978, and in 1980 established her own studio in Westmere, Auckland. In 1992 she took up residency at the International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary and since then, has gained a significant reputation exhibiting throughout New Zealand, Australia, Japan, England, Germany and Hungary. As an established practitioner, Thacker is regularly invited to present workshops and act as a selector for competitions in Australia and New Zealand. She has received numerous awards, grants and residencies, including the Fletcher Challenge Award, Premier Award NZ Ceramics and Glass XPO. Her work is held in numerous private, corporate and public collections such as the Auckland Museum, Otago Museum, Waikato Polytechnic, Fletcher Challenge Collection, Dowse Museum, International Ceramics Studio, Hungary.

1.

2.

Moira Elliott, “Silent Observation”, Ceramics Magazine Europe, 2000, p.37 Helen Schamroth, 100 New Zealand Craft Artists, 1998, p. 84

Christine Thacker 2011 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

CHRISTINE THACKER b. 1953, lives Waiheke Island EDUCATION Spotswood College, New Plymouth Palmerston North Teachers College Massey University

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 2008 2007 2005 2003 2002 2001 1997 1996 1992 1991 1990

On Location, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Jug, the Sea and the Tree, Avid Gallery, Wellington Glossy Pitchers, Milford Gallery, Dunedin Jugs and Jars, Avid Gallery Wellington.

Illustrated Clay, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland Pottery for the Modern Home, Avid Gallery, Wellington Pottery in Still Life, Green Gallery, Waiheke Island, Auckland Clay + Geometry, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland Five Year Review, Out of the Blue Gallery, Kingsland Auckland Solid Pottery, Ponsonby Pots, Auckland Crowds/Form, Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt Ceramics, Lopdell Gallery, Auckland.

Dark Trees and Quizzing Figures, Bowen Galleries, Wellington

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008

2007 2006 2005

2003

2002

2000

1999

1998 1997 1996

1995 1993

Place, Piece Gallery, Matakana Natural Selection, Waiheke Art Gallery, Waiheke Island Collectors' Show: from the collection of Jackie and Graham Guthrie, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland Malcolm Harrison tribute exhibition, Compendium Gallery, Auckland Overlap, with Elizabeth McClure and Pauline Bern, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland.

Beyond the Pale, curated by Campbell Hegan, Northart Gallery, Northcote, Auckland.

Minus Reason, collaborative ceramic work in Malcolm Harrison's exhibition, Objectspace, Auckland Homework, mixed media group exhibition, Avid Gallery, Wellington.

Domestic Scale, The Stitchbury Group Collection of 3-dimensional works, Fisher Gallery, Pakuranga, Auckland.

Image and Object, still-life in New Zealand, Pataka, Art Gallery and Museum, Porirua, Wellington Space, Form and Fire, Gallery East, Perth, Western Australia.

Space, Form and Fire, Ceramic Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia Space, Form and Fire, Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia Auckland Studio Potters Annual Exhibition Truth to Materials, Millennium Gallery, Blenheim Women's Refuge Benefit exhibition, Outdoor sculpture, Becroft Garden, Auckland Hot Offerings, curated by Helen Schamroth, Uxbridge Gallery, Auckland Delegates' Exhibition, 9th National Ceramics Conference, Western Australian School of Art, Design and Media, Perth, Western Australia Ceramic Sculpture, with Richard Parker, Compendium Gallery, Auckland.

Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland Museum Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland Museum Nealie and Friends, Gallery 16, Huapai, West Auckland On Form, curated group exhibition, Lopdell Gallery, Auckland Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland Museum Panoply, an exhibition of Dowse acquisitions since 1992, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt Potters and Architects Collaborate, Fisher Gallery, Pakuranga, NZ. Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award Exhibition, Auckland Museum, NZ. Three New Zealand Women, Akasaka Green Gallery, Tokyo and Takichi Gallery, Kyoto,

Christine Thacker 2011 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1992 1991 1990 1988

Japan.

Cervena Culinary Art, Judith Anderson Gallery (with Cervena Co. Exhibition on NZ art and objects travelling to European centers to promote NZ cuisine) Devonport Arts Festival, Compendium Gallery, Devonport.

NZ Society of Potters, annual selected exhibition, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland Creative Clay, Crafts Council Gallery, Wellington Waikato Society of Potters, The Emporium, Hamilton Heritage Week 1990 celebration group show, Lopdell Gallery, Auckland United! Suter/ National selected exhibition, Suter Gallery, Nelson First National Ceramics Symposium, Otago Polytechnic Ceramics School

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES 2004 1996 1995

1992

1978

Merit Award, Waiheke Ceramics Award Award of Merit, Fletcher Challenge Award, Auckland Museum Premier Award NZ Ceramics and Glass XPO, Auckland Church Bay Estate Award, Waiheke Island Art Awards Judge's Commendation, Fletcher Challenge Award, Auckland Museum NZ Arts Council, Major Study Grant Award of Merit, Fletcher Challenge Annual Award, Auckland Museum 5-week residency at International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary Employment at Cambridgeshire Pottery, Cambridge, England

COLLECTIONS Auckland Museum Auckland Studio Potters Otago Museum Waikato Polytechnic, Hamilton Fletcher Challenge Collection, Auckland, NZ Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2000 1998 1997

Moira Elliott, ‘Silent Observation’, Ceramics Magazine, Europe, 2000 Shamroth, Helen, 100 New Zealand Craft Artists, Godwit, Auckland, 1998 King, Leo, ‘Christine Thacker: A Search for Harmony’, Ceramics: Art and Perception, No.28, 1997

Sea Tile No 14 (2011) Christine Thacker 2011 CV P a g e |3

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz