2022 biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards

22 July – 25 September 2022 Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

Publisher Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Townsville City Council PO Box 1268 Townsville City, Queensland, 4810 galleries@townsville.qld.gov.au © Galleries, Townsville City Council, and respective artists and authors, 2022 ISBN: 978-0-949461-56-8 Published on the occasion of 2022 biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards

Publication and Design Development MAK Media

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Corner of Denham & Flinders Street, Townsville QLD 4810 Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm Sat – Sun: 10am – 1pm (07) 4727 9011 galleries@townsville.qld.gov.au whatson.townsville.qld.gov.au Townsville City Galleries TownsvilleCityGalleries

SPONSORS

PRESENTING PARTNER

TOWNSVILLE CITY COUNCIL

Contents Acknowledgement of Country

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Foreword

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Sponsors & Supporters

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Judge 10 Finalists Keeping up to date with Townsville City Galleries

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Acknowledgement of Country Townsville City Council acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun, Bindal, Gugu Badhun and Nywaigi as the Traditional Owners of this land. We pay our respects to their cultures, their ancestors and their Elders – past and present – and all future generations.

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Foreword It is with tremendous pride that I wish to thank the potters, volunteers, staff, guest presenters, and sponsors involved with the NQPA over the years. We greatly appreciate your support and commitment.

It is my great pleasure to introduce the 2022 biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards, a collaboration between North Queensland Potters Association Inc. (NQPA) and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville City Council.

This ceramic competition and exhibition has been organised by the NQPA since 1973, and has a proud history for its high quality of ceramic entries and renowned judges.

Townsville City Council’s major award is once again acquisitive, and the winning entry will subsequently form part of the extensive selection of ceramics within the City of Townsville Art Collection (COTAC). Various exhibitions over the years ensure that the community is provided with regular access to these major works.

Celebrating 50 years, the North Queensland Potters Association Inc., established in 1972, are a dedicated group of potters who work together to form a not-for-profit association in Townsville. Their aim is to promote pottery throughout North Queensland and act as a catalyst for the pottery community in the region.

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I wish to thank all of those who have contributed to delivering this year’s North Queensland Ceramic Awards, particularly those members of the NQPA and the staff of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville City Council, who have worked towards the success of this exhibition. Of course, the competition would not be possible without our award sponsors and preferred suppliers; thanks must go to Townsville City Council, Pack & Send Townsville, EMU Sportswear, the Rainford Family, and the Jackson Family.

The 2022 North Queensland Ceramic Awards marks the 43rd edition of the competition held in Townsville. Throughout these exhibitions, the intent has remained the same; to increase public exposure to a high standard of pottery from around the nation, and to provide a platform for both established and emerging ceramic artists to showcase their work. This year’s judge, Dianne Peach, is a renowned ceramic artist and educator based in Brisbane. Dianne compliments her studio practice with tutoring, workshop presentations and curriculum development, having a keen interest in the education and skill progression of emerging artists. She has had numerous exhibitions in Australia, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections around the world, including the Australian National Gallery. We are indeed fortunate to have Dianne judging this year’s Ceramic Awards.

Finally, I wish to thank all the artists who have taken an interest in the competition and given their time to create works, and congratulations go to those who have been selected as Finalists for exhibition.

Louise Watson President North Queensland Potters Association Inc.

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Sponsors & Supporters

Townsville City Council have been long term supporters of the North Queensland Ceramic Awards and continue to support the Awards this year as the sponsor of the major acquisitive prize, the City of Townsville Art Collection Award of $10,000.

In memory of David Rainford. Phyllis Rainford’s interest in pottery stems from her and David’s days at the National Art School in Sydney, as collectors of ceramics, and as members of the North Queensland Potters Association Inc.

Pack & Send Townsville have been major sponsors of the North Queensland Ceramic Awards since 2020.

In memory of Betty Jackson. Graham Jackson and Loloma Jewellers have been sponsors of the North Queensland Ceramic Awards since 2000.

Thanks to the passion of the Short family, EMU Sportswear have been long-term supporters of the North Queensland Ceramic Awards, acting as sponsors since 1994.

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Judge Dianne Peach is a renowned ceramic artist who studied ceramics at the Central Technical College in Brisbane, then established her own pottery studio and began teaching in 1966.

She began by making finely thrown bottles and bowls but became interested in the contrast between function and form and now combines slab, tube and slipcast elements to make precisely built geometric pieces decorated formally using stains and underglazes. She has exhibited widely and her work is represented in a range of public and private collections.

to present objects with meaning. The type of clay, decoration, and firing methods are chosen to enhance the subject matter and may range from low to high fire using wood, oil, gas, or electricity.

Dianne’s work is characterised by exacting craftsmanship of her original and innovative designs using a range of clay types and construction methods. A master thrower and a creative hand builder Dianne is continually experimenting with alternative techniques and materials to add to her more than 50 years’ experience with clay and the formation of her mainly vessel-based forms.

Progressing from a functional aesthetic of glazed stoneware her work now is more sculptural and decorative, often referencing contemporary political or social statements

Having trained under Milton Moon, David Smith, and Roy Churcher at Brisbane’s CTC, Dianne compliments her studio practice with tutoring and workshop presentations, having a keen interest in education and the passing on of skills to emerging artists. She has contributed to curriculum development for secondary and tertiary institutions in Queensland and currently teaches at Brisbane Institute of Art.

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Her work is represented in the Australian National Gallery, most State Galleries, and in numerous provincial and private collections here and overseas. She has served on the Crafts Board of the Australia Council, ’85-88’, is a Foundation & Life Member of Ceramic Arts Queensland, and in 2004 was named the State’s inaugural “Ceramics Icon” by Crafts Queensland.

Dianne Peach, Beachcombing 2095 Fraser Desert Zone 2021. Cool Ice porcelain coral polyp and twigs.

Black underglaze or saggar fired decorations, 75 x 35 x 35 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.

Photographer: Katherine Kerr.

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Finalists

Carolina Arsenii Gargoyle 2021 Stoneware 40 x 20 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Carolina Arsenii is a multidisciplinary artist who works with ceramics, video, sculpture and painting. She holds a Master of Fine Art from RMIT University and studied Visual Art at the Central Institute of Technology in Perth.

She has exhibited widely in Western Australia and Victoria including Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, 2022, Emergency Responses at RMIT First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2019 and Lost and Found at City Arts Space, Perth, 2017. In 2022 she was a joint recipient of the WA Sculpture Scholarship for the collaborative work Fossil. She received grants from the City of Melbourne in 2020 and 2021, and a design commission from Perth Airport in 2018.

A hollow structure crowned with abstract, gargoyle-like forms, this work explores ideas surrounding the intersection of the practical and the spiritual. The sandy finish of the work mimics an ossified creature or a tool from previous generations, yet the gargoylelike forms suggest a surreal spiritual device.

Gargoyles traditionally play a dual role: that of caretaker, providing the practical function of clearing water from a building, and that of a spiritual warden, protecting a building and its inhabitants from evil spirits. The intriguing physical form of the gargoyle is an additional and unintentional by-product that does not address either function. The piece confronts the idea that a by-product, that does not address an intended function, can be a compelling characteristic of a functional object. This piece interrogates whether an object needs to be justified by a practical or spiritual function or whether it needs to be justified at all.

Carolina is originally from Perth and currently resides in Melbourne.

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Lisa Ashcroft The Deities Osiris, Montu and Khnum Protecting The Manchineel From Human Consumption 2022 Hand coiled and slab built stoneware and terracotta.

Mayco crackle and sea foam glaze, gold lustre glaze and decals, ceramic pencil, gold fibre and silk fabric Four parts; 35 x 35 x 35 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Lisa Ashcroft was born in Lancashire, England, and attended the School of the Fine Arts in New York. She completed a Post Graduate majoring in sculpture at the Cyprus College of Art and later migrated to Australia in 2011, where she went on to study and work in Mental Health, Business and Leadership.

In 2022 Lisa’s studio practice is dedicated to Global Warming and The Great Barrier Reef. She has exhibited paintings in multiple solo and group shows over the last 20 years, including London, Manchester, Houston, Brisbane and Melbourne.

The Egyptian Deities symbolise important elements of modern society: war, death and fertility. Khnum was the god of the potters’ wheel and was believed to have created humankind from clay. This sculptural piece is a metaphor for current political, socioeconomic, and social decay, and our desire to destroy societies and burn ourselves out through greed, abuse of power, destruction, and arrogance: violations of the Egyptian beliefs. The Manchineel is the pinnacle of the piece, protected by the Deities of human consumption (the poison apple is safe from man’s insatiable appetite in order to continue their life and Khnum’s prophecy).

Lisa is contracted on a regular basis by community agencies to facilitate art workshops. She recently won the WAF painting prize for landscape art and has work in this year’s Percival Portrait Painting Prize.

She has secured exhibitions with various art galleries in far north Queensland for 2023/2024 and will be facilitating workshops at this year’s WAF at Airlie Beach. lisaashcroft.com

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Kelly Austin Stilled Composition 83 2021 Wheel-thrown stoneware, porcelain and glaze Seven parts; various dimensions, 40 x 120 x 30 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Kelly Austin is a ceramic artist living in Lutruwita, Tasmania. She completed a Bachelor of General Fine Arts from the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada in 2011 and a Master of Philosophy from ANU, Canberra in 2016.

This work is about the simultaneous state of knowing and not-knowing; an ebb and flow between the solid and translucent, heavy and light, two and three dimensional.

It is about teetering on an axis between the recognisable and the abstract with the desire to instill wonder and inquisitiveness, and to contribute to the conversation of still life.

Austin’s work has been exhibited in exhibitions across Australia, Canada and The United States of America. In 2018, her work received a high commendation from the biennial North Queensland Ceramics Awards in Townsville, and in 2019 Kelly received The National Still Life Prize from Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery. In 2021 her work was included in the finalist exhibition of the Women’s Art Prize, Tasmania.

This work is contradictory. It celebrates the tradition and history of making and the relentless dedication to one’s craft, while at the same time pushing against the rigour of efficiency and utility, process and practice.

From within the discipline of studio ceramics, objects are deconstructed, re-interpreted and re-framed against the background of painting and sculpture.

Kelly has undertaken numerous international artist residencies, including the Medalta International Ceramic Residency in Medicine Hat, Canada. Her work is held in both private and public collections including: The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

This work is quiet, focused, attentive, subtle and nuanced. It creates a space for softness, whilst also exploring the materials of this earth and their transformation: the wetness and heaviness of clay and the solidity of rock faces. Fundamentally, it is about being in, and of, landscape: turquoise earth, rusted steel, and a wash of white as sea meets the dawn sky.

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Glenn Barkley Likeumandsoumyeah (after Guy Sebastian) 2022 Earthenware 38 x 24 x 10 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Glenn Barkley is an artist, writer, curator and gardener based in Sydney and Berry, NSW, Australia.

Likeumandsoumyeah (after Guy Sebastian) uses text from a video by Australian entertainer Guy Sebastian. Sebastian recorded a message after he was included in a pro-vaccination video produced to support Australian music and to talk to fans about getting vaccinated. Sebastian, torn between wanting to work and alienating his anti-vax fans, made a video where, strangely and humorously, he made a statement that said nothing at all. I felt this need to be remembered – a strange diversion during the boring grind of lockdown. The pot uses a format that owes its shape to ancient Greek pottery – particularly the form known as a krater. Kraters often had an ample surface to decorate, often with myth, so this is part of that tradition. The main face is that of Donald Trump whose rhetoric around vaccines bled into the Australian anti-vax movement.

Major exhibitions include The Urn of Bitter Prophecy, Sullivan + Strumpf (2021); Regarding George Ohr, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida USA (2017); yetmorecontemporaryart, Artspace, Sydney (2017); the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object, Art Gallery of South Australia (2016); The Garden of Earthly Delights, Westspace, Melbourne (with Angela Brennan) (2016); and Glazed and Confused: Ceramics in Contemporary Art Practice, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, NSW (2014).

Barkley was previously senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2008–14) and curator of the University of Wollongong Art Collection (1996–2007).

He was a finalist in the 2017 Sidney Myer Ceramics Award and is held in numerous collections both nationally and internationally, including the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Artbank.

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Paula Bowie Bunya Mountain Dreaming 2022 Special K stoneware and dry matte glazes Five parts; various dimensions, 45 x 25 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

As a ceramic artist, I am constantly inspired

by Australia’s magnificent diversity. My passion for ‘primitive art’ and archaeological digs influences my forms. The tactile and malleable nature of clay allows me to shape challenging forms.

A time of peace and reflection in the ancient Bunya State Forest afforded me the inspiring encounter with enormous, gnarled and prehistoric Liane Vine. The extraordinary size, colour and form of these vines inspired a dream. In the witching hours I awoke and sketched the vividness of my dream before it faded gently into the light of a new day.

Wheel throwing and hand building are a part of my studio practice and I often use a combination of these techniques. This combination provides interesting outcomes and results in a reconnection with the Australian landscapes which awe me.

Technically the dry, matt glazes enhance the tactile surface of the works.

My observation of our extraordinary country and its diversity, in particular, the rock formations and nature’s sculpture of unique plants reflects my fascination with mark making and texture, which are an integral part of my work.

I love to fossick and have introduced sieved concentrates from my expeditions to my favourite clays, enhancing the textures of the clays and resulting in an earthy quality.

Clay and organic materials fuel my spirit and inspire me.

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Amanda Bromfield The Stand Off 2022 Earthenware and midfire glazed ceramic Two parts; 20 x 31 x 60 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Amanda Bromfield is a Master of Fine Art graduate from the National Art School in Darlinghurst. She is an exhibiting artist and has been chosen as a finalist in, The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, The Tom Bass Sculpture Prize, The Fishers Ghost Art Award, The BAM Art Prize, and the Northern Rivers Portrait Prize. Her work is held in the Permanent Collection at Lismore Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, and the Canberra Potters Association. Bromfield makes work for the Home of The Arts Gallery (HOTA) on the Gold Coast Queensland, Artisan, Queensland Arts and Craft in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, and The Lennox Art Collective (LAC) in Lennox Head.

Amanda Bromfield’s artworks portray the effects of human actions on natural ecosystems. Specifically, Bromfield makes ceramic installations about declining koala numbers and the loss of their native habitat.

In this work you witness the koala habitat being cleared by a bulldozer… A koala sits on top of recently, felled trees.

If you look closely at the koala, you will notice that the koala seems to be challenging the bulldozer, daring it to continue its destructive course of land clearing, deforestation, and extinction of native species.

Bromfield’s art practice is based on environmental consciousness-raising, her ceramics are a conduit to create awareness of the fragility and impermanence of our unique indigenous flora and fauna.

Bromfield’s koala ceramics were featured on the cover of The Journal of Australian Ceramics, Vol. 60 No. 1 April 2021. She is currently involved in the JamFactory’s Australiana exhibition at Seppeltsfield in South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

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Natasha Chant Standing Stones 2022 Unglazed ceramic, midfired in reduction Two parts; 61 x 43 x 15 cm, 36 x 28 x 10 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Natasha Chant is an early-career Ceramic Artist based in Melbourne. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) Object Based Practice from RMIT University in 2015.

Natasha creates sculptures celebrating form, minimalism and monumentality.

Exploring the intersection between history, mythology and legend, Standing Stones reference ancient henges and Megalith stone formations from the Bronze and Neolithic Age. The loss of any oral or written history regarding the stone formations shrouds them in mystery. However, their powerful presence in the landscape continues to fascinate and inspire awe.

Re-emerging onto the ceramics stage at The Pottery Expo in February of this year, Natasha debuted a new collection of work with great success. Consisting of the Gaia series, Standing Stones, and one-off pieces, Natasha’s work has generated a great deal of interest.

Standing Stones draws inspiration from the stories and legends of the Odin Stone, a large megalith from the Orkney Islands.

The minimalist form is soothing and restful, drawing attention to the bold silhouette and dynamic central eye.

Through the intersection of history, mythology and legend, Natasha’s new work explores the fading of memory and history through time, and the desire of humans the world over, to create monuments that will last throughout the centuries.

The Odin Stone was used in sacred ceremonies and binding rituals throughout history (particularly in relation to weddings); couples would take hold of each other’s hands through the hole, the power of the stone binding them for eternity.

Standing Stones beckon the observer to imagine placing their hands through the hole to participate in this ancient ritual.

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Len Cook Double walled Bowl 2021 Local clay Anagama fired natural ash 7 x 20.5 x 20.5 cm

Flower Container 2021 Local clay Feldspar inclusions. Anagama fired. Naturally deposited wood ash glaze 24 x 9 x 9 cm

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About the Artist

About Double walled Bowl

I have been a potter for more than 40 years.

My work is represented in regional galleries from Cairns to the Gold Coast. I enrolled in a course at Monash (Gippsland Campus) with Owen Rye as my supervisor where I achieved a Grad Dip in Visual Arts. I have built many wood-firing kilns in various places and have worked with like-minded potters. I have developed clays specifically for wood firing.

I sell all of my work in my new purpose-built gallery here in Paluma.

I am a materials kind of person. In my profession as a potter, it is important to source materials that are appropriate for any given aspect of any project. As a potter, I have the privilege to make all the choices that are involved in the making of ceramic pieces I choose to create. From the formulation of clay, to building, and the kiln, all of these decisions are mine to make. The bowl exhibited has a loose form which has been deformed by the 100-hour firing.

About Flower Container This piece was fired in my anagama kiln for 100 hours. Made of local clay with coarse Felspar chunks. My inspiration for this piece came from a visit to Iga in Japan. The potters in this region make pieces, that to my mind, remind me of pots that are not made but born. They also remind me of rugged rocks and imagine having flowers growing from the fissures in the surface.

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William Cotching LANDSCAPE ECHOES 2022 Unprocessed foraged ceramic, pit fired 33 x 16 x 16 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

My studio area is pit-fired ceramics and painting with earth. I have worked as a soil scientist in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia as well as in Tasmania.

The deep spirits of nature are captured in my imperfect aesthetic of rustic simplicity.

The unsophisticated expression of the foraged clay is in tune with the stillness of nature and needs to be appreciated for its texture and colour. The hand forming is tranquil yet vital and produces subtle distortions that incorporate my intrinsically deep and philosophic thoughts. You can put your trust in something that is not a perfect shape.

The natural landscape provides both the materials and inspiration for my art. Rough textures, minimal processing, natural materials, and subtle hues are all part of my creative process. My pots are a personal reflection of the natural world.

My making requires me to be aware of myself, of the clay and of the process. I produce unique pieces that allow me to enjoy the spontaneity and beauty found within imperfection, impermanence and elemental fire. I love working with a natural material, clay, and each time I make a pot the experience changes. No two pots are ever the same. The clay can lead me in different directions on any given day.

The elements of earth and fire are combined to reveal a unique fusion manifest in this pot.

Foraged clay, seaweed and sawdust plus salt crystals are brought together in a pit firing where the intensity of the fire within the pit is uncontrolled giving rise to the highly variable patterns, colours and effects. It’s like being present when a cosmos is created.

Everything is entrusted to the power of nature, and the process is about acceptance rather than control.

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Margaret Crawford Pandanus INSPIRED 2022 Stoneware clay, underglazes and glazes Three parts; 26 x 30 x 12 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I became involved in Townsville’s visual arts scene in 1998. Gaining a Diploma of Visual Arts in 2007, majoring in Fine Arts. Since then I have gravitated to printmaking and pottery. Pottery brings together all my artistic instincts as I find clay a perfect canvas to express myself. My work has predominately been inspired by North Queensland environs.

I enjoy combining the wheel throwing and hand-building processes using porcelain and stoneware clay and firing to Cone 6/7.

Pandanus are iconic plants, native to Australia, well recognised and bountiful along our North Queensland coastline. It is a beautiful, if unruly tropical plant that can take many aesthetically interesting forms.

The images on my vessels are inspired by these forms, which I have portrayed in silhouette. The prickly leaves hanging in skirts with flashes of orange for the seed pods. Its slender screw like trunk and slender aerial prop roots that emerge to help keep the plant upright and secure to the ground.

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Beth Croce Not Without a Scar 2022 Slipcast porcelain with wax patina, surgical suture and needle 10 x 7 x 7 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Beth Croce is a Johns Hopkins trained, certified medical illustrator who uses her practice in bioscience communication to inspire sculpture, printmaking and jewellery from a science perspective. She uses a variety of media to explore topics such as the effect of invasive surgery on personal identity, human impact and relationship with the environment, and the agency of humans over the affairs of other species.

Analogous to the world we live in, an intact egg protects and nurtures life within it. This slip cast porcelain egg has been damaged, distorted, and partially sewn back together. The surgical repair of the wound is as challenging, clumsy and imperfect as humankind’s attempts to repair anthropogenic damage to climate and environment using science and technology.

Working in science and medicine, I’m a huge admirer of our ability to innovate and adapt. However, the idea that we can just fix natural systems such as the climate, ignoring the more difficult route of damage prevention, is complacent and flawed. No matter how clever and skilled we humans are, these ‘fixes’ can never completely undo the damage done. There will be a scar.

In addition to having multiple awards for her medical illustration, Beth has been a finalist in the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize and the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. She has been commissioned to do works for RMIT Gallery and public murals. Her anatomical jewellery has featured in the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week and has been worn by fictional forensics expert and style guru Abby in the USA television program N.C.I.S.

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Greg Daly Clouds at Sunset 2022 Earthenware lustre glazes – Silver and Copper 22 x 25 x 25 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

A ceramic artist with over 45 years of professional practice working from his studio in central west NSW. A member of the International Ceramic Academy – Geneva since 1986. Greg Daly has produced an extensive body of work over this period. With over 105 solo exhibitions. He has contributed to an extensive number of group exhibitions throughout Australia and 23 countries.

His work has been acquired by over 80 public collections throughout Australia and overseas, including the National Gallery of Australia, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK; American Museum of Ceramic Art, USA; Decorative Arts Museum, Prague; Stokeon-Trent City Museum, UK; International Ceramics Studio collection, Kecskemét, Hungary; Icheon World Ceramic Centre, Korea, and Saga Prefectural Art Gallery, Japan. Greg is also a recipient of many awards Internationally and in Australia. Writer of three ceramic books on glazes and lustres.

My studio is in central west New South Wales and the view from my studio is one that allows me to see from one horizon to the other. From first light to sunset, I watch the day’s light traversing this landscape, interacting with the atmosphere, the topography and the flora. A slow symphony of colour, ever changing.

I see the first rays of light through the morning mist, glimmering silver and gold.

I see sunsets through clouds and haze, glowing red and purple like a precious stone.

I see the midday sun shining from a clear blue sky, filtering through the eucalypts and illuminating the vegetation, sometimes lush, sometimes sun-bleached. A myriad of colours, some subtle, some overwhelming, never the same, always changing.

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Kaz Davis Habitat: tidewrack 2022 Wheel-thrown and altered stoneware and porcelain blend, slips, engobe, pigment, matte glaze 12.8 x 17.4 x 13.4 cm

Habitat: drumline 2022 Wheel-thrown and altered stoneware and porcelain blend, slips, engobe, pigment, matte glaze 13.8 x 19 x 12.5 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Kaz Davis lives and works on Bidjigal land (Sydney). Before embracing clay, she made sculptures from bronze and copper, in addition to photographic works.

She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW in 1991 (photography), and an Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts at Meadowbank TAFE (sculpture) in 2003. Kaz’s work has been included in curated exhibitions including at Brunswick Street Gallery (Melbourne) in 2021, and Gallery 152 (York, WA) in 2019, and the Salon des Refuses, at SH Ervin Gallery (Sydney) in 2003. She was a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize 2021, North Queensland Ceramic Awards and Meroogal Women’s Art Prize (NSW) in 2020, Little Things Art Prize (NSW) in 2018 and 2019, Gosford Art Prize (NSW) in 2018, and Woollahra Sculpture Prize (NSW) in 2002. Kaz was awarded an Australia Council grant in 2021 to support the development of new work.

Kaz’s ceramic pieces are wheel-thrown using a mixture of stoneware and porcelain clays. Her recent works are layered with slips, pigments, metal oxides and glazes to develop complex, organic patinas. The source of inspiration for these organic surfaces are Kaz’s photographic observations of coastal and industrial localities where she lives and works. Her drawings, based on her photography, further inform the layered ceramic surfaces. These recent works echo both natural and human-made elements of her immediate environments: tidewrack, seaweed, drumline buoys, remnants of graffiti on concrete walls at local beaches, and weathered patinas on storage tanks and shipping containers at Port Botany. In this Habitat series, layered surfaces on the ceramic forms meld together to evoke a felt sense of Kaz’s immersed experience of her local environment.

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Johanna DeMaine Encrustations 2021 Southern Ice Porcelain, clear glaze, bespoke mica decals, self printed laser decals, raised enamel, gold 23.5 x 22 x 18 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Meringandan West and Kyushu based artist; Johanna DeMaine commenced potting in 1971. Since then, she has had in excess of 40 solo exhibitions, participated in 200+ group exhibitions and won numerous awards. Her work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia as well in public art galleries, museums and government collections both in Australia and overseas.

Encrustation defines a hard, compact layer of a dissimilar material tightly held to the underlying substrate. It can also be used to describe the inlaying or addition of enriching materials to a surface.

In this work Encrustation I am exploring the notion that a new reality has emerged in our normal lives during this ongoing pandemic.

I have enriched the glazed surface with gold, enamels and bespoke mica decals. Despite using a very fine porcelain substrata I have achieved a crusty hard layer juxtaposed with intricate detail.

She has exhibited extensively overseas, and her work is in collections of HRH Queen Elizabeth II of England, Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark and the Governor General of Australia.

For me this symbolises the “known versus the unknown” in today’s reality.

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Tony Di Giacomo Deep Reflections 2022 Porcelain clay with crystalline glaze 5 x 32 x 32 cm

Jade Blossoms 2022 Porcelain clay with crystalline glaze 28.5 x 13 x 13 cm

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About the Artist

About Deep Reflections

I have always had an interest in pottery since my university days when I did a few lessons for fun. Then it was an on-off affair, fitting pottery in between full-time work, children and other commitments. It has only been the past five years that I have really got into pottery in a more significant way.

Thrown from porcelain clay, the platter has a crystalline glaze on the inside and a stoneware glaze on the outside. Glazing the inside of a bowl or platter with a crystalline glaze does not always produce a desirable result as the glaze pools in the middle and felting occurs – crystals grow densely producing a rough and unattractive finish.

When I discovered the magic of crystalline glazes, I have been fascinated by the effect they can have on a piece. I’ll never go back to those more traditional stoneware glazes.

There is so much one can do with these glazes and I feel my journey has only just begun.

The crystalline glaze on this platter worked beautifully with crystals growing around the inside of the platter and a smooth glassy finish in the centre. A perfect result!

About Jade Blossoms While it is important to make a piece that has a beautiful form, it is the glaze that dresses it up. Depending on what you see, the piece will either be admired or ignored. The glaze on this piece has a high percentage of copper oxide and uses a frit not available in Australia. The frit often produces superb crystals. The copper oxide interacts with the clay body to produce a rich green background as well as the green crystals.

These greens only come to life after the piece has been soaked in a mild acid so the excess oxide can be removed (etching).

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Kate Dorrough River Language and Connections 2022 Stoneware ceramic with slip and glaze 46 x 29 x 26 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Kate Dorrough is represented by Art House Gallery, Sydney, and has exhibited since 1996, holding eighteen solo exhibitions in galleries; Access Contemporary Art Gallery and Art House Gallery, Sydney, Beaver Art Galleries, Canberra, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane and Catherine Asquith Gallery, Melbourne. She has also exhibited in numerous group and selected exhibitions.

My ceramic work explores the relationship between the discipline of painting and handbuilt stoneware ceramics, it is a conversation between paint and clay.

The work focuses on the concept of the river, a source of fertility being a vital and pivotal life force. With limited water resources, floods and droughts mark our consciousness.

Hand built with stoneware clay and numerous glaze firings, iron oxide within the clay bleeds through layers of glaze, slips and stains. Gestural calligraphic marks act as a text or an implied language to be understood or deciphered.

Dorrough has been selected several times for the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, the Refuse Exhibition, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Paddington Art Prize, the Still Life Award and the Ravenswood Art Prize. Her ceramic works have been selected for the Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award and the Australian Ceramic Association exhibition, The Course of Objects, and Land exhibition both exhibited at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum, where in 2023 she will hold a solo exhibition. In 2019 Dorrough also held a solo exhibition at the Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW and in 2021 exhibited in The Cube at Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney.

The work acknowledges our need to understand the river in order to preserve and work with these essential forces.

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Dan Elborne Where They Burn Books (00196 – 00212) 2021 Porcelain, tin glaze, gold lustre and book ash Multiple parts; various dimensions, 14.6 x 10 x 33.8 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Dan Elborne is an Australian visual artist currently practicing in Naarm/Melbourne.

His primary working material is clay, which is utilised for long-form installation-based projects and sculptural series’. Across various modes of practice, Elborne builds work on intersecting foundations of memory, time, labour and materiality.

Where They Burn Books references the power, resilience and preciousness of knowledge, despite forces against it. By strengthening these porcelain objects through the firing process; they stand as martyrs to spoken, written and remembered language; and in a contemporary context, they celebrate society’s unprecedented and exponential access to stories, testimony and ideas.

Each project and piece remain conscious of the historical, philosophical and technical potency of ceramics, as well as secondary materials including ash, gold, lead and bone.

Through their use, Elborne references events, themes and dichotomies of survival against suffering, preservation against decay and the intricacies of remembering. Ultimately, and regardless of form, Elborne’s work is designed, produced and exhibited to invite viewers into a gentle space of interpretation, contemplation and actionable reflection.

Each piece is hand-carved and dried over the course of months. Displayed amongst the groupings are dark forms, which are created from an experimental composite material that suspends reclaimed porcelain in compressed paper ash. This material is also used to fill and accentuate cracks in the porcelain pieces.

Primarily influenced by nineteenth-century German Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine’s play Almawnsor (1820–21), which was burnt in 1933 Germany; this ongoing series (or expanding library) began during a residency at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark. In the play Heine wrote: “Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”

Elborne has exhibited across five states in Australia. Internationally, he has participated in several artist residencies in France, Denmark, Iceland and Japan, and exhibited in London, Helsinki, Sweden, Copenhagen and Philadelphia.

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Bridget Foley The Pier 2021 Porcelaneous stoneware, multiple glazes, reduction fired to 1300˚C 21 x 20 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

My initial training in ceramics was at the Carlton Arts Centre in Melbourne after I completed a degree in Psychology and Visual Arts. I worked for Victoria Howlett for a year assisting her in the production of her functional ware. I further developed my skills by attending multiple workshops by Australia’s leading potters.

Much of the inspiration for my work comes while walking along beaches; the movement in shifting sands, the colours in rocks and coastal vegetation and the different blues and greens that come from the changing sea and skies. The Pier is inspired by a particular pylon I constantly walk past. The rust formed on the metal ring on the pylon with the colours of the lichens, and the weathering timber above, jumped out at me with its vibrant rich colours and textures, which became the impetus for this work.

For 25 years, while teaching in TAFE, I ran my own studio selling functional ceramics as well as exhibition work. For the last five years, I have been working full time in my studio.

In 2021, I was a finalist in the Klytie Pate Award and the Stanthorpe Art Prize. In December, I had a solo exhibition in the CLAD Gallery at Bendigo Pottery. My work has been acquired by the Manningham Art Gallery after my work Shifting Sands won the Merit Acquisition Award in 2017.

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Claire Freer UNTITLED 2021 Hand built using wild clay, bisque fired, salt deposits Three parts; 35 x 80 x 50 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Claire Freer is an Australian artist based in Alice Springs/Mparntwe. She has a Master of Fine Arts Practice from Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom; her art practice incorporates ceramic, sculpture and installation. Since 2012 Claire has been living and working in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of Central Australia. For the last three years has been working with various found clays she has sourced with permission from local people specifically around Irrunytju Community in Western Australia, on the tristate border of Northern Territory and South Australia. Claire is currently a finalist in the Alice Prize 2022, Alice Springs, Northern Territory. She has works selected for Clay on Country exhibition to be held at the Araluen Art Gallery, Alice Springs to coincide with the 16th Australian Ceramics Triennale 2022.

My creative process is intuitive, experimental, and explorative. Living in Central Australia I have spent many hours exploring the natural environment and my work is driven by a desire to respond to my immediate surroundings through material and process.

As a European settler my relationship to this land is superficial, when I walk, my eye is drawn to the immediate environment of landforms, plants, and animals. Using found desert clays I allow myself to be led by the material, to create forms and installations that respond both to my history of built urban environments and the natural desert landscape. UNTITLED, a work in three pieces is suggestive of both chimney stacks and desert termite homes. Unglazed, dimensions variable, the hand-built coil work reflects Tali, the desert sand dunes. With a white salt deposit most likely left from the sweat off my hands whilst handling the greenware before firing.

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Susan Frost Rise 2022 Porcelain, colour glaze 22 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm

Chevron Vessel 2022 Porcelain, colour glaze 16 x 19 x 19 cm

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About the Artist

About Rise

I am an artist working in Adelaide, South Australia who uses the evocative properties of colour and decoration to highlight the sculptural qualities of form within my wheelthrown porcelain vessels.

I have been looking at architectural adornment with my current work, particularly that of the Art Deco period. The relief decoration on this canister not only echoes the layered, symmetrical motifs of the era but evokes the upward reaching skyscrapers of the time. This work is wheel-thrown porcelain, glazed in a pale green that is achieved by mixing various stains.

After completing my studies at the Adelaide College of the Arts in 2008, I accepted a two year Associate position at JamFactory Craft & Design from 2009–2010. Initially making functional production work, I have shifted my practice into a slower, more research-based approach with a strong focus on developing one-off pieces and bodies of work for exhibition.

About Chevron Vessel My minimalist forms explore subtle gradations of colour and tone. To achieve this geometric pattern, I have painstakingly applied tape, which acts as a resist, and sponged back the porcelain clay layer by layer. The melting glaze breaks on the edges of the decoration and pools in its recesses, creating tonal contrasts.

In 2019 I undertook a four month selfdirected residency in New York with funding assistance from Arts South Australia, dividing my time between studying the city’s architecture and museum collections and making work in the studio in response.

My work has been curated into exhibitions throughout Australia including a major four year touring exhibition celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Journal of Australian Ceramics.

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Harriet Geater-Johnson Herbaceous Border 2021 Ceramic earthenware and glaze 45 x 60 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Harriet Geater-Johnson is interested in exploring the conflict, and cohesion between animals and humans, and how their presence causes a continual impact to the natural environment. Her pieces are often zoomorphic, and attempt to show the precarious position that animals find themselves in as a result of human intervention. Geater-Johnson hand sculpts each piece, and then often makes moulds from which to cast, given the scale and weight of the ceramic forms. She incorporates both porcelain and white earthenware in her work. Originally from the UK, Harriet has lived and worked in every state of Australia, she now resides in SA.

This work reflects the challenges endured by native animals due to colonial impact. The animal reflective of Canis Dingo, prowls the landscape where boundaries have changed.

Hunting and breeding grounds are impacted by progress and development and survival is a test. Around his neck, sits a floral chain reminiscent of the English Herbaceous Border. (A collection of plants arranged closely together to create a dramatic effect through colour and scale and used to define areas). In this instance the border suggests constraint and restriction as the ecosystem has altered and evolved in the face of European settlement. His surface patination has a green hue, reflective of the Verdigris on old monuments exposed to the elements.

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Minna Graham Motherful 2022 Stoneware, black pigment, metallic glaze. Gas fired in reduction Three parts; 50 x 50 x 50 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Minna completed a Diploma of Ceramics at the University of Ballarat in 2012, furthering her education with a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Ceramics at Federation University. During her study, Minna was awarded the Albert Coates Memorial Award for Excellence, two Scholarships, as well as being inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society for high achievement in her field. Minna was awarded the INCA Award- Michael Hallam Award for Innovation in Ceramics in early 2018. Minna has also studied ceramics in the Karatsu tradition, specialising in tea ware, in southern Japan. Minna works as a studio potter, her work collected and celebrated by numerous galleries and private collectors, and continues to achieve in her field.

I am a mother, full of my children.

Mothering since I was a child myself, I have grown up with my children, we taught each other. A pursuit that is sometimes smooth, soft, gentle, peaceful. Other times dark, spikey and angular. Always reflecting on my behaviour, on theirs.

There are strong bonds, fragile relationships, we are constantly redefining the dynamic between us. Push and pull.

They wanted me and needed me when they were small. Growing older they needed me but didn’t want me. Now they’re both going, they want me but don’t need me. I have long been trying to catch up, always falling behind.

The race begins, and I’m running but it’s over before I get there. Push and pull.

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Baylee Griffin Grevillea Whiteana #2 2022 Stoneware with red iron oxide wash 20 x 20 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Baylee Griffin is an artist working and living on Gurambilbarra (Townsville), land of the Wulgurukaba people.

Wheel-thrown, and decorated with hand rolled coils, this piece is a study on the fragility of our ecosystem.

With the use of traditional pottery forms, sculpture, and painting, Griffin’s work is a meeting place for exploration into the tender presence of nature in the everyday.

The metallic colour and texture speak as though the piece is robust, forged in a furnace. However, it is delicate, scorched with licks of fire that have left it ashy and breakable.

Griffin has conducted multiple workshops for the public and for school students in collaboration with local galleries. Her work so far has been exhibited at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville, and at QCA Galleries in Brisbane.

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Claudia Gyr Intimacy Unearthed 2021 Midfire clay burnished and coloured slips 8 x 18 x 18 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Claudia Gyr completed a potter’s apprenticeship in Switzerland, learning all facets of making a living as a potter in 1978.

I enjoy the intimate, sensuous nature of clay and like to preserve the raw, tactile feel without using glaze.

After extensive travels she emigrated to Australia where she established her own pottery studio and gallery in 1993 focusing on production pottery, wholesale and teaching.

She participated at the Gold Coast Ceramic Award and was published in Ceramic/Art and Perceptions International.

The bowl is a symbol of what we are able to care for and hold. Sometimes the bowl breaks. Lives are continuously broken and mended through time, and it is a challenge to weave all our different experiences into a meaningful fabric.

My work goes through several transformative stages of disintegration and re-assemblage and the beauty which emerges is beyond my control. Finding beauty in the soul of ‘things’ shaped by the passage of time, its transient nature, speak to me of a mystery beyond words.

In 2002 she closed her pottery studio and engaged in further studies completing a Master’s degree in Arts Therapy focusing on the creative process and mindfulness practices as a therapeutic intervention.

It is only after almost two decades, during COVID-19 with more time at hand, that she found her way back to the love of working with clay. Claudia now enjoys the slow way of hand building fusing creativity with mindful reflections.

I am inspired by the Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi: “If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.”

Andrew Juniper 2003

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Elizabeth Hardcastle and Andrew Richards Blue Cassowary Dreaming 2022 White stoneware with a blue underglaze 25 x 11 x 11 cm

Blue Wrens and Jay Dreaming 2022 White Stoneware with a blue underglaze Two parts; 22 x 27 x 13 cm

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About the Artists

About Blue Cassowary Dreaming

We are two ceramicists that work in collaboration producing clay outcomes to inspire and provide joy. We love to produce art that is symbolic and reflects nature, landscapes and organic forms through markings, intricate lines and the application of oxides and glazes. Andrew makes the vessels and Elizabeth applies a range of underglazes, oxides and slips to the vessels and carves through the layers in the sgraffito style producing lines, marks, scenes and objects. We are committed to making strong, inspirational and beautiful vessels.

Blue Cassowary Dreaming is part of a Blue Bird Dreaming series which is a collection of ceramic vessels depicting birds which are predominantly blue.

Blue birds symbolise hope, love, prosperity and renewal. Blue birds are important symbols as we transition from the pandemic and through global uncertainty. Each vessel is made from white clay with deep blue underglazes and contrasting coloured glazed interiors. The birds are carved, using the sgraffito style, nestled in their natural flora habitat.

We have been making vessels for over four years but have only recently started showing our work. In the two exhibitions we have entered we have won awards.

About Blue Wrens and Jay Dreaming Blue Wrens and Jay Dreaming is part of a Blue Bird Dreaming series which is a collection of ceramic vessels depicting birds which are predominantly blue. This is a collection of two vessels depicting wrens and a blue jay.

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Wendy Hatfield-Witt Earth 2022 Porcelain sagger fired spheres placed on a black porcelain base decorated with fossil impressions highlighted with engobes Five parts; 25 x 50 x 30 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I enjoy producing works that have both meaning and substance. I choose to work in porcelain because of its fineness and response to a variety of processes. For me it is a blank surface on which to tell a story.

I have been a practicing artist and teacher for over 30 years, producing both functional and sculptural ceramics. For me objects must have a purpose and represent aspects of who we are. This purpose may be utilitarian or just simply to start a conversation. We all create or collect for a reason. I have widely exhibited in Australia and America. In 2006 I completed a Bachelor of Ceramics (Honours) from The National Art School. Other qualifications include a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Post Graduate teaching degrees. I am represented in many private collections. My most recent publication is A Life Of Collecting

by Merran Esson (2020).

The spheres are wheel-thrown porcelain clay and fired to Cone 6 in saggars which have been filled with organic material found on local beaches. The sculptural bases are made from black clay and fired to Cone 7. The surface has been decorated with impressions made from fossils and coral. This work is a response to our environment and its fragile nature. The spheres are representational of our world and are filled with porcelain shards. They are meant to be shaken and thought provoking. The black sculptural bases are an interpretation of what could be the harsh reality of the future. This work is about balance, respect for the past and the precarious nature of the future.

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Fiona Hiscock Summer 2022 Stoneware ceramic painted with stains, underglaze and oxides, and finished with a clear glaze 45 x 20 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Fiona Hiscock is an artist working primarily in ceramics. Her works are hand built and highly painted with imagery drawn from the natural environment. She has held over 20 solo exhibitions and participated in many group and curated exhibitions. She was recently the recipient of the Muswellbrook Art Prize (Ceramics) and the Stanthorpe Art Gallery Ceramic Awards. Her work is held in a number of public collections, for example Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Shepparton Art Gallery, Parliament House Collection and the Jewish Museum (Victoria).

During the Melbourne lockdowns I became a keen birdwatcher and observer of seasonal change. I walked regularly in Royal Park, a large expanse of free space contained within my five kilometres. The park is mostly planted with native species, with many trees pre-dating colonisation. I noticed rarely seen bird species, and an abundant biodiversity despite the dispossession the park represents. In this work, I wanted to draw attention to the importance of remnant bush in urban environments and the precious habitat it provides when so much of our natural environment is under threat. The work specifically depicts musk lorikeets foraging in a ficifolia eucalyptus.

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Bonnie Hislop Opening Lines On Dating Apps With Pictures Of Carbs: Hi Cutie 2022 Ceramic, glazes, lustre 31.5 x 12 x 19 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Bonnie Hislop is a Meanjin based ceramicist specialising in hand building and ceramic illustration. Grounded in technical skill, her practice has evolved from creating illustrative functional ware to large scale sculptural vessels. Bonnie uses her forms to critically engage with the world around her and documents the human experience. Working from her studio in Yeerongpilly, Bonnie meticulously hand crafts her forms through an involved and often uncertain process that comes with working with this medium. She unites bright colours and satirical concepts to engage her audience in a dialogue with the physical world around them. Her work intersects traditional representations of ceramics with a craft aesthetic to create a contemporary interpretation of the ceramic medium. Her practice aims to encapsulate universal experiences of frustration, angst, grief, emotional fatigue as well as tenderness, intimacy and desire. The performative, brightly coloured ceramics forge an existence through joy and curiosity.

This series of vessels is a satirical first-hand interpretation of the often comical and frustrating experience that is online dating.

Bonnie references Marie Antoinette in both form and use of the decorative cake motif.

The connection to the quote ‘Let them eat cake’ insinuates a certain sense of apathy in the approach to the works. Each one features a (paraphrased) ‘opening line’ received by the artist on an online dating app from a prospective suitor. She reduces the opening lines from the bold offering of wit and charm with which they are intending to infer the phrases are being directed to the cakes themselves. This further implies they are cute or saccharine, appealing on the surface, a sweet comforting treat, yet unnecessary and not particularly satisfying or sustaining.

In this way she questions these apps and this specific example of the evolution and continuation of the ‘pick-up line’.

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Shen-Ju Hsieh Staying at home 2021 Porcelain, midfire satin glaze Multiple parts; various dimensions, 12 x 90 x 25 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Shen-Ju Hsieh is a Canberra based emerging ceramics artist from Taiwan who combines functional everyday things and sculpture in ceramics. Hsieh completed a Bachelor of Fine Art in craft and design, majoring in ceramics at the National Taiwan University of Art in 2017. She has completed a Master of Contemporary Practices in Art and Design in ceramics at the Australian National University.

Her artworks are centred on exploring wheel throwing and hand extruding techniques in ceramics and expressing emotions by reserving the feature of the material. She creates anthropomorphic vessels and linear squeezing clay bases as a metaphor for the relationship between humans and the environment.

My work is centred on making anthropomorphic vessels and grouping them into a social microcosm. The vessel represents humans, while numbers of vessels form a society. I explore hand squeezing techniques in ceramics and use these abstractive clay lines to create a corresponding environment for wheel-thrown vessels.

The circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years have forced us to make significant life changes; for example, socially distancing, staying at home, and following travel restrictions. The changes to our social formations have also influenced our emotional and mental health.

By portraying everyday objects as human beings I am able to present the different social formations during the COVID-19 pandemic, while similarly expressing the varying emotions experienced by people through diverse making techniques.

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Stephanie James-Manttan Sort Sol 2021 Porcelain Two parts; 28 x 32 x 45 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I’m a South Australian ceramic artist based in Adelaide. In 2006 I obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design (ceramics major).

In 2008 I completed the two year Associate Program at JamFactory. I now currently serve as JamFactory’s Head of Studio since 2019.

Sort sol is the Danish word which literally translate as ‘black sun’. It also refers to murmuration, or flocking behaviour, that has been observed in the marshlands south western Jutland, of Denmark, where large numbers of migratory starlings gather in Spring/Autumn. The birds, which can number as many as one million in a single murmuration, gather in huge formations in the sky after sunset in search for a place to roost, performing intricately coordinated patterns through the sky. I witnessed the phenomena in Italy, I was mesmerised... my heart skipped a beat, it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t just the scale and movement that captivated me, it was the collective consciousness by the swarm – the birds moved in perfect unison. A brain cell has no intelligence by itself, but put together in sufficient numbers, they display remarkable properties, just like these birds.

My work is held in many private and public collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia. I exhibit on a regular basis and sell my work nationally through leading galleries and retailers.

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Lena Kaapke Technological Ornaments 2021 Hand thrown porcelain and crystalline glaze Multiple parts; various dimensions, 8 x 60 x 60 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Lena Kaapke, born in 1989, is a young artist based in Kiel, Germany. Kaapke works as a conceptual artist in the field of installative contemporary ceramics. She graduated in Fine Art and Ceramics in 2015. She finished a three year research project about “the colour red in ceramic technologies.” Since 2015 her work is exhibited in many exhibitions, for example at the British Ceramic Biennial in Stoke on Trent, Great Britain; at Shiro Oni Studio, Japan; and Jingdezhen, China and many further places.

The project Technological Ornaments explores the ornamental potential of a single crystalline glaze recipe, which was fired in 15 different kilns. Chemical reactions in certain glaze compositions causes crystalline forms to grow in certain firing processes. Each bowl is fired with the same glaze, each represents a different firing process with a different holding time at different firing temperatures.

This influences the growth of the crystals and leads to different shapes of them.

Consequently, the work Technological Ornaments specifically uses ceramic technologies in a painterly way and materialises different firing technologies in the form of different glaze reactions, resulting in different visual crystalline ornaments. The work is thus a map showing the potential spectrum of ornamental forms of that glaze.

In 2016 Kaapkes work was awarded by the Artistic prize of the State of SchleswigHolstein, Kaapkes work was honoured in 2019 by the state prize of the Professional Association of Plastic and Graphic Arts of Schleswig-Holstein and this year it was nominated for the well-known Faenza Prize in Italy. Since 2021 she is represented in the Federal Collection of Contemporary Art of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The work evokes the question of whether this glaze is a yellow or a blue surface. It forces the viewer to think differently about the definition of colour for ceramics.

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Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger Into the Reefs Flows the World 2022 Wheel formed and hand built from Blackwattle’s Special K, Cone 10 reduction fired, celadon glaze with decals and hand stencilled builders plastic Multiple parts; various dimensions, 35 x 150 x 80 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger has a Master of Contemporary Art and Master of Fine Art degrees from Sydney College of the Arts – University of Sydney. Her research into evolution, contemporary society and the impact of tourism on island environments has seen Lea do onsite investigations through immersive residencies in Deception Island (Antarctica) 2017, The Faroe Islands (North Sea) 2015, The Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) 2014 and Lord Howe Islands (NSW, Australia) 2014 and 2015.

The text flows as if it were water flowing across the tops of the corals becoming part of the coral, splashed with the blue of the oceans within which they sit. This beauty belies the truth, the text lists the ocean debris collected of the beaches of Lord Howe Island.

The flow from plastic sheet to becoming part off the ceramics acknowledges the movement of plastic around our oceans from large pieces to the microscopic, depicted in the differing size of the text.

In disseminating her artistic vision, Lea has been published in peer reviewed journals and a book, delivered formal lectures and over 16 papers at conferences around the globe. She exhibits in group exhibitions internationally including Taiwan, United States, Berlin, Ireland, with an extensive Australian profile in solo and group exhibitions including, Ravenswood, The Alice Prize, North Sydney Art Prize, Sculpture by the Sea (Sydney and Cottesloe), Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize.

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Woochang Kim MOON JAR(달 항아리) 2021 Stoneware, crusty white glaze, 1260˚C 42 x 42 x 42 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Kim Woochang is a contemporary artist of ceramics living and teaching in Sydney, Australia. In his 19 years as a ceramic artist, Kim Woochang has mastered both traditional and creative techniques of ceramics. Kim Woochang endeavours to capture the human emotions and expressions through his ceramics.

White slip was applied on the white clay leaving a sense of a brush touch, and finally, black slip was applied by brush. I applied the concept of a hand-made decoration called Kwi-yal used in Bunchung-Sagi (a form of traditional Korean pottery). It was made by adding 12th century decorations to the traditional 15th century form.

Kim Woochang received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Ceramic Craft from Kookmin University in Seoul, Korea.

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Michaela Kloeckner Entangled 2021 Stoneware, wheel-thrown and hand built, slipped sea sponges, various glazes, two clays 27 x 38 x 14 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Michaela Kloeckner has been a ceramicist since her workshop training in 1982 with Master Potter Errol Barnes at Lyre Bird Ridge Pottery in Springbrook, Queensland, Australia. As a competent production potter she established her own studio pottery in 1986. In 1990 her work moved from the purely functional to special exhibition pieces.

Michaela has exhibited both nationally and internationally and she has won numerous awards including the prestigious Gold Coast 3D Art and Design Award in 2004. Since moving to Nambucca Heads, NSW, in close proximity to the ocean, her new work has become increasingly experimental, using collected and slipped sea sponges and pebbles.

Entangled deals with the fact that we as humans strangle our planet and ocean life by our continuous use of plastics. Sea life is caught in shark nets and left to die and discarded fishing lines injure birds.

As human beings we have to take responsibility for our actions before it is too late.

For more info please visit kloeckner.com.au

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Lihnida Krstanoska-Blazeska Oobert 2021 Clay, underglaze pencil, underglaze and glaze 52 x 25 x 30 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Lihnida Krstanoska-Blazeska is a multidisciplinary artist producing both fine art and functional pieces, currently based in Sydney, Australia. In 2019, Lihnida graduated from UNSW Art and Design, with a Bachelor of Design, majoring in ceramics and graphic design. Approaching sculpture in a playful manner, Lihnida constructs surreal figurative forms primarily using coil and slab ceramic techniques. A vibrant palette of ceramic pencils and underglazes bring her pieces to life. Equal parts endearing and grotesque, her works are informed by the visual language of children’s cartoons. Built from the ground up, with very little preparatory drawings, the placement of each limb and appendage guides the next until the work is resolved.

Inspired by the visual language present in children’s cartoons and stories, each limb and illustration is adventitiously added to create this peculiar creature. Created with a range of hand building techniques as well as glazes, underglazes and pencils. Oobert’s tattoos became a story based off numerous suggestions from children, from a mermaidunicorn to a slime-dripping pizza. From head to toe Oobert is covered in whimsical illustrations and stories. The closer you look the more insight you will have into his world.

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Anne Kwasner Missing in Action 2022 Midfire clay, porcelain and onglaze Four parts; various dimensions, 16 x 40 x 25 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I am a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked across the mediums of printmaking, mixed media and drawing plus in more recent years incorporated ceramics and installation.

A recurring theme of my art practice has been displacement, entwined with experimentation of how personal objects can be highly emotive. Shoes whilst mostly a manufactured product take on the shape of their wearers feet and hold the history of their steps. Souls on soles.

I have exhibited consistently since 2006, with a history of working with independent spaces.

In my Masters, completed in 2019, I explored the migrant experience in, I Come with Baggage, this has come as a progression on my ideas of dislocation, diaspora, and the melancholy of displacement and continues in 2022.

Shoes are a constant motif in my work, originally used to process my mother’s life as a migrant arriving in Sydney with only one pair.

The images painted on these shoes, both adult and child, have been sourced on the internet. I look at the faces of adults and children faced with the constant of war and displacement. The dilapidated buildings and featureless people reflect the aftermath of war, absence of people and past, an emptiness and a fragility.

2019 I was a finalist in the Franz International Porcelain Ceramic. I have been represented in; Redlands, North Sydney; Shoalhaven Contemporary, Maitland; Rookwood Cemetery ‘Hidden’ Sculpture and the Hutchins Drawing Prize, Tasmania. My work is held in private collections both in Australia and abroad. In 2021 I exhibited with Damien Minton at his Damien Minton Presents A Sunday Arvo Art Salon, and group shows including North Sydney Art Prize, 2022.

The shoes are hand built and then made into moulds. Each is individually adjusted to make them unique, then hand painted with onglaze.

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Michelle Le Plastrier Riot Grrrl 2021 Midfire ceramic, underglaze, clear glaze and mirror paint 19.5 x 12 x 16 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Michelle Le Plastrier is a multidisciplinary artist based between Yugambeh (Gold Coast) and Meanjin (Brisbane) with a focus on hand-building ceramics. Michelle has built the foundation of her practice studying under local ceramicists and teaching introduction to hand-building courses at Dabbler Studio in Meanjin. Her practice is centred around the desire to always be expanding on the technical skills and knowledge to explore the balance between sculptural and functional ceramic forms.

This piece was inspired by the freedom, empowerment and autonomy that creating, learning and teaching ceramics has given me and a tribute to the way ceramics has changed my life immeasurably.

I looked to punk rock Riot Grrrl bands and their in-your-face demand for these ideals and its aesthetic as a way to express this.

Riot Grrrl songs often addressed issues such as sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism and female empowerment.

The zebra was chosen for its aesthetic parallels to punk rock culture with contrasting patterns in its markings and natural mohawk.

It was important the piece had the duality of function and form, paying homage to Riot Grrrl feminism and being valued beyond the aesthetic. The empty vessel is open and ready for the possibilities of what it could be filled with and hold. Inviting a world of exciting prospects, as the world of ceramics has done for me.

She was recently selected for the ArtKeeper program at HOTA, a five month paid artist employment opportunity. She has exhibited work and completed residencies across QLD and produced workshops for many local art institutions and businesses including Gold Coast Arts and Culture, Pacific Fair, Level Up Studio and Gallery, Artwork Agency and HOTA. Michelle graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Media from the Queensland College of Art.

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Samuel Leighton-Dore I couldn’t tell if he was having fun or needed help 2021 Earthenware with underglaze 14 x 32 x 14 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Samuel Leighton-Dore is a ceramic artist, animator and writer based on the Gold Coast.

His ceramic works have featured on the cover of the Australian Journal of Ceramics and been acquired by HOTA as part of the Gold Coast City collection. His first two solo exhibitions Fragile Masculinity, Handle With Care and Crying In The Leagues Club explored themes of masculinity and mental illness, ideas he further pursued in his book How To Be A Big Strong Man (Smith Street Books, Simon & Schuster). He is currently writing and developing a coming-of-age animated series with Ludo, the production company behind Bluey.

I couldn’t tell if he was having fun or needed help is a sculpture about living in a perpetual state of flux. Hand-built during both a personal and global crisis, I wanted to convey a sense of surrendering to the unknown; riding out waves of anxiety, stress and depression, while staying open to the occasional ripples of joy. On a deeper level, it’s also about the way men are pressured to perform masculinity and mask their struggles with mental illness, making it difficult for loved ones to know when they’re okay and when they need help. The sculpture depicts a figure whose feet aren’t quite touching the ground, riding a wave with both arms flung to the sky. From the distance of shore, it’s impossible to tell if he’s distressed or exhilarated – or, perhaps, both.

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Simone Linder-Patton Resurgence 2021 Ceramic, white raku clay, pit fired with organic materials 22.5 x 18.5 x 18.5 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Simone Linder-Patton is an emerging South Australian ceramic artist.

Influenced by recent catastrophic events of survival and regeneration. From bushfires to the outbreak of COVID-19, the natural world like the human spirit has not been daunted.

But we need to be able to protect the natural resources in these uncertain times and for future generations.

Graduating with a Visual Arts Honours’ degree from Flinders University and TAFESA in 2017, a ceramics major in her bachelor’s degree in visual arts, in 2016. Simone is a studio tenant at the JamFactory Seppeltsfield.

Utilising alternative firing techniques to explore the confluence of the elements on my hand-built pieces. Recycled waste materials surround the work during firing, creating unique visual and tactile surface nuances.

Winner of the 2021 Adelaide Potters Club SALA Clayworks prize and the 2021 Campbelltown Art Show Ceramics third prize winner. Finalist in the Adelaide Hills Landscape Art Prize 2021, the Heysen Landscape Prize 2020 and winner of the 2019 Saint Ignatius Art Show Sponsors prize.

Awarded the inaugural JamFactory Award at the Helpmann Graduate Exhibition 2018.

Exhibiting her work in Fringe and SALA Festivals annually. Simone has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Praxis Gallery 2020; The Australian Association Triennale in Hobart, 2019; and Mansfield Ceramics Emerging Artists exhibition in Gulgong 2018. Simone completed a mentorship with Stephanie James-Manttan wheel throwing in porcelain in 2018.

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Sai Cheong MA Coral White Trio 2022 Porcelain and terracotta; satin white glaze, oxidisation, stoneware 1250˚C Multiple parts; various dimensions, 29 x 33 x 23.5 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Chris Ma studied Art & Design and Studio Ceramics in Hong Kong and then graduated from Wolverhampton University, UK, in 1991.

Afterwards he joined the IWCAT in Tokoname Japan for anagama kiln firing.

The Coral White Trio is inspired by the coral bleaching of The Great Barrier Reef. The satin white Coral image is built upon three upside down pots standing on dry, rough terra cotta fragments. It illustrates an image of lonesome bleached Corals standing quietly, waiting to be drifted away on the low tides.

His works have been shown in more than 100 exhibitions and including the Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennial, Taiwan Ceramics Biennial and Asian Art Exhibition of The 12th Asian Games Hiroshima Japan. Recently, his ceramic installation was selected to show in the first International Contemporary Materials Art Biennial exhibit in China and Europe.

An expression and reminder on environment protection – protection of the ocean; environmental upset will lead to damage of nature.

Chris’ works have been collected in museums, galleries, universities and private collections in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, UK, Canada, USA and Germany.

Chris came to Australia in 1996. He is now an artist for CERTE (Live Art in Sydney) in creation on ceramics and sculptures.

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Luisa Manea Love me Not 2022 Clay pottery 30 x 20 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Experienced in many areas of creativity from textiles, painting, mixed media, and pottery. Finding one creative area blends into another, the knowledge of pattern cutting for garment construction has helped me shape flat clay into a 3D form. The knowledge gained from painting many portraits has also helped with facial proportions. I am constantly growing as an artist and enjoy the challenge a new medium presents.

Experimental glaze and slip has been applied to achieve a unique structure. When making a bust it’s hard not to think of the bust from the Rococo period of the 1730s–1800s. Here I try to achieve in ornate bows and frills with a human form that is more raw than refined, yet has some of the same presents as the grandeur statues from the period. This creates an interesting 3D form I’m happy to explore more and more.

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Keiko Matsui Pray 2022 Porcelain, cobalt, and glaze Six parts; various dimensions, 33 x 10 x 10 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Born in Japan 1969, Keiko moved to Australia in 1999 and now lives and works in Melbourne. She is one of the studio artists at Montsalvat, the oldest Australian artists’ colony established in 1934.

On hand-built porcelain vessels, I draw imaginative botanical motives to add another life to each vessel. It is a meditative moment as well as a time of facing fears, because there is only one chance to attempt it, which is the same philosophy as Japanese calligraphy.

Keiko’s approach to the creation of both functional and non-functional objects is one of poetry and whimsy, yet always displaying the simplicity for which she is known.

Freely expressed brush strokes and delicate lines are created from a fully centred mind and lifelong practice of calligraphy since I was born in Japan.

She had her first solo exhibition at Sturt Gallery in Mittagong in 2012 after exhibiting many group shows since 2003. Her recent achievements include North Queensland Ceramic Awards (2020, 2018, 2016, 2010, 2004), Gosford Art Prize (2018, 2014, 2012), Vitrify Alcorso Ceramic Award (2013), John Fries Memorial Award (2011), Small Art Object Prize in France (2009) and Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2008).

Why do people adore flowers and display them for special occasions such as weddings and funerals? Why do we smile when we find flowers on the street? Why do we keep introducing natural beauty into our everyday life?

I was pondering these questions whilst preparing the cobalt blue pigment. Blue is the most loved colour by humans and has both positive and negative aspects. I connected with this colour deeply while calming myself in this uncertain period of time.

Keiko completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in 2006 at National Art School in Sydney and currently undertaking Master’s by Research at RMIT University in Melbourne.

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Suvira McDonald Tea Jars 2021 Wood fired porcelain with natural ash glaze and embedded carbon Two parts; 15 x 11 x 24 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Suvira has been a ceramics practitioner for 30 years, being awarded an MA from Southern Cross University in 2000. His practice has had domestic dinnerware and other vessels as a central thread; complemented by his production of landscape interpretations formed in low relief and sculpture. His vessel productions associate with the other arts and rites of floristry, dining, tea, funerals. Suvira’s current research is predominantly wood firing and his kiln, an anagama, is situated in the forest of Byron Shire, NSW, Suvira also curates and advocates for ceramics and other threedimensional art forms in the NSW Northern Rivers region.

The forms are produced at a nexus of wheel forming and sculpture, the surface irregularities designed to catch the delicate ash flows during the firing. The translucent green ash glaze is the result of the Sally wattle wood used as the primary fuel over the three day firing process. Porcelain, when placed to front the flame produces the carbon sequestration evident.

These jars could function to store fermented tea. The lid does not form an airtight seal so they are not appropriate to store other tea.

The sculptured form and the glaze formed by ash during the firing gives them an exceptional presence and suitable only for storing a tea of the finest quality produced in near perfect conditions over years.

Fermented tea is mostly pressed into cakes or bricks only some is left loose leaf; these jars are dedicated to such tea.

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Moo Pocket – rainforest remnant 2022 White raku, white underglaze, sgraffito, glazed inside, fired to Cone 6 17 x 23 x 12.5 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I am inspired by nature and solitude and currently work with clay, mosaics and plants.

I consider “being creative” as essential for well-being and happiness, and a vital tool for “self-expression” and “making sense” of the world.

So I’ve been thinking about how, during my lifetime, we, the human race, have changed the face of planet Earth. As a world, it is really quite unrecognisable. Mountains have been moved, forests flattened, and rivers redirected. And we have replaced the natural environment on a massive scale with “built habitat”. Many loudly and proudly call this “progress”... but the cost has been the devastation of our world’s natural environment.

The context, themes and processes I use in my art revolve around the use of “negatives and positives”, “fragments that form a whole” and “assumption, interaction and disruption”.

Each piece is unique – individually handcrafted and decorated using multi layered processes.

My “pocket” series of clay works are a record of the “few and far between” bits that remain.

Each piece is organic in form and quiet by nature. This pocket is inspired by the remnant of rainforest that I live adjacent to.

In recent years I have facilitated several community art projects in the Douglas Shire working with volunteers to coordinate, design, produce and install mosaic art works into public spaces in the Shire.

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Donalee Moriarty Whole 2022 Stoneware and porcelain 28 x 5 x 21 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Donalee Moriarty is a student of ceramics and wholeheartedly enjoys the experimentation and investigation this practice brings.

Pieces are made from a variety of clays and processes at her home studio in Ipswich, Queensland. Currently Donalee’s interests are in hand building with porcelain, which brings much sorrow but also much joy.

Whole is a reflection on experience today.

The porcelain centrepiece is vase-shaped, but reflects the human form with neck, shoulders and body. The form’s surface is worn and abraded from the effects of war, pandemic, natural disaster events. Its heart is pierced.

The supporting metallic-glazed structure reflects the community that keeps each individual from collapsing – the health workers and rescue services, the community leaders, the families, friends and loved ones.

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Anne Mossman Eucalyptus Study 5 2021 Coloured porcelain, unglazed/polished 23 x 22 x 22 cm

Seams of Bold 2021 Coloured porcelain, unglazed/polished 30 x 19 x 15 cm

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About the Artist

About Eucalyptus Study

Anne lives on hinterland acreage on the Southern Gold Coast where her studio is surrounded by native bush, eucalypts and abundant wildlife. Her ceramic vessels are heavily influenced by this immediate environment. She became a fulltime artist on retiring from a corporate background in 2002. Since completing a Ceramics Diploma in 2007 (ANU) her passion has been creating works for exhibitions. She has been the recipient of several ceramic awards and is in private and public collections. She enjoys community involvement in the form of teaching, workshops and supporting in ceramic associations. Anne is a ceramic artist working in coloured porcelain.

Anne Mossman’s inspiration is drawn from the disparate colours on some of the Eucalyptus tree trunks in her local environment. The bark peels off in sheaths to reveal nude like patches of new ‘skin’ which is invariably smooth and lighter coloured than other parts of the bark. The contrast in colours and tones is stunning.

About Seams of Bold Anne’s garden is a sub-tropical picture of bold, colourful bromeliads. The vessel is a reference to the bromeliad aechmea blanchetiana and its striking, metre long yellow and orange inflorescence.

As with most of Anne’s ceramics it was created using the coloured clay lamination technique (nerikomi). Building the block in an abstract way and subsequently contorting it provides for a semi-controlled method of producing organic seams and swathes of colour. The fine porcelain used provides for an excellent medium to enhance the colours and line definitions.

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Julie Nash No Bees No Life 1 2022 Stoneware and underglaze pencil 25 x 29 x 13 cm

No Bees No Life 2 2022 Stoneware and underglaze pencil 34 x 33 x 13 cm

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About No Bees No Life 1 and No Bees No Life 2

About the Artist Julie Nash is a ceramic artist and teacher who has developed her professional practice for over 20 years. Nash has a strong background in drawing and design, as well as a passion for environmental issues and botanic illustration. Over the past two years, Nash has created a series of drawings and ceramic objects for ‘The White Bluff Project’, which culminated in an exhibition at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and an article in The Journal of Australian Ceramics, Vol. 60 No. 3. In 2019, a series of sculptural objects ‘Past Tense, Impact Present’ were selected for the Clunes Ceramic Award. This work was acquired by the Ballarat Art Gallery and has become part of their collection. In 2019, her carved ceramic series: ‘Back from the Brink’, was selected for the North Sydney Art Prize, and in 2018, her ceramic diptych Saw Point was selected for the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award.

Native bees are under attack from insecticides, herbicides, industrial-scale monoculture food farming and habitat destruction. With over 1,700 native species already discovered in Australia; bees are important to entire ecosystems as well as our own food chain. We all know bees produce honey, but more importantly, they allow plants to reproduce through pollination.

This not only includes native plants, but recent research has found that native bees contribute to 80% of food crop pollination worldwide. Without these bees, our existence is threatened. Depicted on this watering can are four Australian native bee species: Blue Carpenter, Teddy Bear, Metallic Carpenter and Blue Banded. The shrub is a favourite with many bee species: Abelia grandiflora, found and easily planted in Aussie suburban gardens. Grab yourself a watering can and get planting!

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Catherine Ogden From beneath the Earth 2020 Stoneware, rock glaze Two parts; 8.5 x 12.5 x 12.5 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Catherine completed her diploma in Fine Arts at TAFE in 2012 and works across a variety of mediums including drawing and painting but most recently and more prolifically she works in ceramics. Her work consists of sculpture and domestic ware. She is inspired by the environment, figurative art, glaze making and learning new processes. She lives with her husband in Kelso, Townsville.

These bowls were born from the idea of reforming crushed rock into a useable vessel.

The rock that was sourced from 201 metres below ground from an exploration drill hole.

The unknown outcome in colour, melt and functionality was an exciting journey in my experiments. Now something that is so ancient has become a modern functioning object to be used and handled in our daily lives and hopefully loved and treasured for a lifetime.

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Warren Ogden Overflow 2022 Stoneware, yellow, grey, blue 29 x 27 x 15 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Warren is a Townsville based self-taught potter. He began making pots when he joined North Queensland Potters Association (NQPA) in 2012. After a couple of lessons on the wheel he soon realised that throwing was not for him and instead tried his hand at hand building, from which he has never looked back. Using the coiling technique, Warren enjoys the slower more meditative process which lends itself to produce free forms. Much of Warren’s influences come from ancient pottery, particularly Japanese pots and wood fired pots. His work primarily consists of large sculptural vases/bottles and vessels which he fires in both stoneware and raku atmospheres.

With global warming and the recent floods on our east coast and the destruction that it has brought with it, the one good thing that has come out of it is our dams are full. Getting dams full is one thing but getting people’s houses and businesses back in order is a lot harder.

Warren is a groundsman at Good Shepherd Catholic Community School.

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Maricelle Olivier The Gang-gang Gent and Dame 2022 Red-raku with slip and underglaze Two parts; 31 x 60 x 29 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Maricelle Olivier was born in South Africa and immigrated to Australia in 2007. Recently, Maricelle has been working for the past two and a half years as the Ceramics Studio Manager at Ernabella Arts Centre, located in far North West remote South Australia.

Maricelle graduated with an MFA in Ceramics at the National Art School in 2018 and had her first solo exhibition at Gaffa gallery in Sydney CBD in 2020. Maricelle has been part of many group exhibitions in Sydney, including Sabbia Gallery and White Rhino Artspace. Her work has been selected in the finalist exhibition for the Lake Art Prize in 2020 at the Museum of Art and Culture in Lake Macquarie, and a selection of works has been acquired into the National Art School Collection and City of Sydney collection.

Inspired by the beautiful vivid parrot not found anywhere else in Australia except the South-Eastern corner, the Gang-gang cockatoo has sadly featured as a frequent topic of discussion since the 2020 NSW south coast bushfires.

As a substantial mass of their habitat had been stripped away by the catastrophe, the declining numbers have now qualified the Gang-gang cockatoo upon the endangered species list.

A three-dimensional surface decoration effect of the Gang-gang’s plumage forms the focal point, combined with generous roundbellied basket forms to establish a crosscontinental interpretation between Africa and Australia. This work is a commemoration and recognition of the Gang-gang; male and female, woven together in companionship.

Maricelle is represented in Sydney by Sabbia Gallery, Redfern.

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Nigel Perera Aventurine dream 2022 Terracotta clay with aventurine glaze 40 x 18 x 18 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

After initially learning at Cairns TAFE, I began work as a production potter and specialised in throwing large pots. After a long hiatus from pottery, I have started producing work again in the last three years to make use of the skills and knowledge I gained from working as a production potter.

Whilst studying I began experimenting with crystalline glazes. This work encompasses experiments with wheel-thrown form and aventurine glaze. I enjoy working with terracotta clay and it is well suited to the glaze I’m using. This work was made from two sections joined together. I use a gas blowtorch to stiffen the clay to speed up the completion of the work.

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Danish Quapoor salubrious 2022 Hand-pierced porcelain paperclay, body stain and clear gloss glaze 11.5 x 12.5 x 11 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Danish Quapoor is an Australian multidisciplinary artist. Quapoor’s sparse compositions, colour schemes, personal iconographies and subject matter unify his practice across his use of diverse media, including illustrative paintings, ceramics and textiles. The artist slyly explores concepts of identity, relationships, religion, sexuality and morality, including contradictions, absurdities and frustrations within these.

This work extends upon Danish Quapoor’s series of intricately hand-pierced ceramic forms. In contrast to the majority of the series, salubrious conveys a lightness and levity in both concept and aesthetic. The pastel mint form is monolithic (at least in comparison to Quapoor’s smaller works), and pays tribute in this way to the artist’s larger than life (yet ironically, recently deceased) father. The title refers to the health-giving word that Quapoor associates with his dad, yet the phonaesthetics of the word also reflects the colour, coolness, smoothness and milkiness of the form.

Quapoor has completed numerous solo, collaborative and group exhibitions, residencies, projects and murals throughout Australia. He held a solo exhibition at the Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA), Ballarat in 2018, and has since been working towards his largest body of work to date.

He holds a Master of Arts & Cultural Management (University of Melbourne), and an Honours and Bachelor degrees in Visual Arts (University of Southern Queensland).

He has works held in the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery collection and private collections in Australia, USA and Germany.

Quapoor is also a curator with interests in recontextualising collections and forging collaborations.

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Liz Ranger-Craven Banksia “Life Cycle” 2021 Hand built, stoneware vase. Sgraffito drawing in black underglaze covering outside of pot.

Celadon Cone 9 glaze on the inside Two parts; 37 x 39 x 22 cm

Pair of Botanical Vases; Bottlebrush & Grevillea 2021 Stoneware, Sgraffito, black underglaze, celadon glaze inside Two parts; 36 x 52 x 21 cm

Nature’s Goddesses 2022 Stoneware, transparent glaze over underglaze painting, lustres 27.5 x 26 x 25 cm

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it leaves its treasure, the magnificent seed pods. These have been well observed and delicately portrayed on the outer surface of the pot. The plain black illustration of the plant’s forms is captured by using sgraffito to emphasise the stark beauty of this Australian beauty.

About the Artist Liz Ranger-Craven immigrated to Australia from South Africa in 2011, and currently resides in Mackay. She studied art, majoring in Printmaking and Sculpture (1986). This was where her love for ceramics began.

Liz has participated in various exhibitions over the years receiving numerous awards and public artwork commissions. Clay has enabled her to explore her creativity. Her pieces primarily consist of bold shapes covered in intricate surface design and texture; the form and surface decoration relay a story in unison.

About Pair of Botanical Vases; Bottlebrush & Grevillea Large hand-built vases depicting the characteristic plant forms of Australian native flora, the bottlebrush and grevillea. Hardy and resilient, both pieces are illustrated in black sgraffito showing the essence of the plant. The glazes on the inside of the pots are characteristic of the colour of the plant. Both these plants are important ecologically for birds and insects.

Her work is an ode to materials, she feels by creating these pieces she aligns herself with a way of life as ancient as humankind, using what our planet provides. This translates into the importance and value of protecting our natural environment.

Her unique hand-built pieces reflect her printmaking and sculpture background, portraying her roots and passions.

About Nature’s Goddesses Depicting three deities; forces of nature and interwoven with their environments. Both a part of and distinct from their surroundings.

Our natural environment is made up of many facets, complex and breathtaking. This vessel emphasises the importance of humankind taking responsibility for our natural environment, treasuring it. These works are inspired by Klimt’s paintings, his decorative surfaces and use of colour.

About Banksia “Life Cycle” This large hand-built vase is a strong formidable shape that reflects this hardy plant. Its beautiful forms and textures through the plant’s life cycle. As the plant buds, blooms and ultimately wastes away,

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David Ray Blue Vase 2020 Earthenware, decals, enamel, platinum 38 x 18 x 18 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Living in the Yarra Valley, Victoria and making since 1990, I have been influenced by 18th century European Factory ware, and the industrial revolution especially in how machine and production, change the way we live and how it affected the way we live today.

Conceptually, my creations explore function and dysfunction within our consumeristic society. The handmade is an idealistic idea I hold dear within my making process.

Decoration is incorporated within the body of the work; weaving, twisting and turning, with a confounding plethora of images and motifs. I feel that life is a juxtaposition between the perception of the beautiful and the ugly, which creates a subjective perception towards making and looking at art itself. Decoration suffocates the surface in a world that often appears absurd, included is a self-portrait with fume mask, (not COVID-19 related) more protection against possible future environmental disasters.

The hand of the artist is never far from one’s consciousness when viewing the work of David Ray, which is intentionally imperfect, asymmetrical and sometimes seemingly top heavy. Also lingering in one’s awareness is the nature of ceramics; usually pristinely designed and immaculately fashioned and fragile. These two opposing qualities are a reaction to the overriding influence of machines competing against nature and the natural world.

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Clarissa Regan Life Journey 2022 Earthenware and clear glaze on underglaze 5 x 33 x 30 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Dr Clarissa Regan is a Sydney artist, who works primarily in ceramics and graphic imagery. She graduated with her PhD from Sydney College of the Arts in 2014 and runs workshops in print and ceramics. She has exhibited widely, and her work has been featured in publications and the Lark Book series 500 Prints on Clay.

This platter is drawn upon my collage scrapbooking journal, exploring the idea of the wheel turning in one’s life journey, and looking for hidden treasure. My current body of work is exploring the idea of narrative and how that may be depicted in a non-linear fashion, on a round ceramic surface and how suggestions, allusions and dream-like memories can recall experiences.

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Mandy Roe Unconditional Love 2022 Coloured porcelain 13 x 13 x 13 cm

Reef Solace II 2021 Partially glazed stoneware 28 x 30 x 16 cm

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remain. Flowers grow and beautiful stories encompass the sphere. It becomes steady and lasts, more beautiful in the end.

About the Artist There are over 15,000 temples in my birth country Taiwan, depicting gods, folk heroes, animals, nature, and the beauty of Earth. As a child, visiting temples awakened the cultural and artistic threads connecting myself to my ancestors. The artworks entranced me as I wondered about the era, people, places and circumstances from which they were created.

After I migrated to Australia, I dabbled across mediums and gaining interest and experience across wide aspects of visual and manual art forms. When practicing ceramics, though an Australian interpretation, I reflect on the imagery and the emotions associated with my childhood viewing of the masterful beauty of Taiwanese art works. My current works are my first efforts toward the confluence of two themes; the ecological state of the Earth and I hope to channel more of the masterful artisanal spirits of my ancestors; a neverending journey of observation, expression, learning and self-discovery.

About Reef Solace II The Great Barrier Reef, one of Earth’s remarkable gifts. Fragile corals support a tapestry of colourful marine life. Angel fish fade into deep turquoise depths, clown fish dart about, and butterflyfish and a sea turtles swim as they did for many thousands of years; beauty is diversity. As the impacts of humanity bleach, suffocate and diminish; the breath of the reef slows and weakens.

In this work, unglazed stoneware forms bleached coral. While in contrast colourful underglazes and glazes portrays the hope of life.

It is not too late to heal the reef before it fades along with humanity; the choice is yours and mine. One can take solace in that the Earth and her ecosystems will continue to evolve, with or without us. My vision is the Great Barrier Reef continues to survive to be a natural wonder for each generation to come.

About Unconditional Love This work is an experimental process drawing from relationships of unconditional love. The positive nature of shortcomings. First, we believe love is a beautiful flawless sphere, carved of memories and stories. Then, imperfections weaken to cracks, breaks and ruin. Further on cracks are repaired; some

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Kerrin Samuel QR Me (a play on “Cure Me”) 2021 Porcelain and stoneware with clear glaze, decals and gilded with 24ct gold lustre Multiple parts; various dimensions, 5 x 28 x 24 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Kerrin creates artworks that explore the human experience. She draws inspiration from emotion, pop-culture, religion and observations of humanity and sees art as a powerful vehicle for social commentary. She has been painting and drawing since she could hold a brush and pencil.

A collection of keepsake little handheld porcelain lidded containers gilded with 24 carat gold lustre and inspired by Victorian era pillboxes made contemporary and taken into the 4th dimension with working QR codes in the context of a global pandemic and all its ramifications. Combating widespread misinformation about science and medical research and the emergence of pervasive interactive technologies, the pillboxes represent the personal human experience during successive lockdowns and restrictions on liberty, they are apart yet form community, amidst public health orders designed to protect the population but keep individuals separate.

Kerrin studied graphic design, fashion design and interior design.

Discovering a passion for ceramics later in life and, being constantly hungry to learn and improve her skills and knowledge, Kerrin returned to full time study at RMIT. She is currently a third year BA (Fine Art) student, majoring in Ceramics.

Kerrin is developing artworks that take ceramics from the third dimension into the fourth dimension, blending artisanal ceramics with technology.

Kerrin was honoured to win the RMIT first Year Ceramics Art Prize and was a finalist in the 2022 Muswellbrook Art Prize as well as winning several other awards over the course of her career.

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Roshni Senapati Seams 2022 Hand-built porcelain vessels with polished exterior and glazed interior, knotted and ‘stitched’ repurposed silk thread Two parts; 11 x 36 x 12 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Roshni Senapati is an Australian ceramic artist based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Working with clay and thread, her work explores ideas of memory and connection and touches on the theme of ancestral history and cultural heritage. She works with porcelain to make sculptural vessels which include looped and knotted silk threads and cloth drawn from old family garments.

I hear my mother’s voice as I ‘stitch’ the thread into the vessel – “The back should be as neat as the front”. I see her hands create intricate stitches that transform cloth into a picture. The silk threads I use are drawn from her embroidered cushion cover. The gold seam captures a moment in time and anchors my memories to the vessel wall.

The threads I use have all been worn or used by mother. They connect her practice to mine and serve as windows into my family history. Each knotted thread holds memories of people and place. Within its fibres reside narratives of who I belong to and where I come from. Brought together through my process, the porcelain and thread vessels serve as memory-keepers of past times.

Born in India, Roshni has called Australia home for forty years. Following a teaching career, Roshni is focusing on building a ceramic practice. She started formal ceramics classes in 2016 and is continuing her studioled exploration of sculptural vessels, working from her home studio.

Roshni was a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize 2021, Ceramic Arts Queensland 2021 Siliceous Award for Ceramic Excellence and the Little Things Art Prize 2021. Her work has been exhibited in Brisbane, Sydney and London.

Seams is an assemblage of sculptural vessels with re-purposed thread that explores notions of memory, family history and cultural connection.

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Arun Kumar Sharma Untitled Group (Human Vessel Series) 2022 Porcelain with matte glazes Four parts; 20 x 13 x 13 cm, 17 x 10 x 10 cm, 16 x 10 x 10 cm, 18 x 11 x 11 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Arun Sharma was born and raised in New York state. He holds a MA Ceramics from Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK (2011); a MFA from the University of Washington, USA (2009); and a BFA from Alfred University, USA (2001).

The Human Vessel series is reflective of my interest in the human body. As a figurative sculptor I am interested in the relationship between ceramic vessels and the human form. Individually, as pairs, or in groups, it is interesting to see how the form and surface give each piece its own unique identity and how the vessels interact with each other.

Arun has lived and worked as an artist in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and the UK where he was awarded a US-UK Fulbright grant to research the Fragmented Figure at the National Centre for Ceramic Studies at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Arun has received numerous grants, awards and residencies nationally and internationally and has been invited to lecture and teach at universities in the UK, USA and Australia.

Arun Sharma now lives in Sydney and continues to exhibit his artwork nationally and internationally.

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Tatsiana Shevarenkova The Flower 2022 Ceramic abstract sculpture, unglazed Multiple parts; 84 x 29 x 29 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Tatsiana Shevarenkova is a Belarusian artist based in Sydney. After a career as a fashion stylist in Moscow, she moved to Australia in 2019 and began to explore her curiosity of more tactile mediums. As a self-taught artist, she founded COSSET CERAMICS in 2020 and began to explore sculptural forms with lighting.

The Flower is a two part sculptural object on a ceramic round stand.

During the process of creation, I was challenged by multiple issues: How to keep it balanced? How to secure the sections? How to join a ceramic sculpture with a ceramic stand?

I wasn’t able to step back and see its full shape due to the complexity of the work – the round bottom isn’t stable without the base. During the process of hand-building, I had to keep the bottom section in a bucket.

It was blindfolded work on a piece that I couldn’t see. Two months later, I was finally able to assemble the work. I stepped back, and I saw The Flower for the first time. I was surprised by its height and gentle curves growing from one place to another. I am nervous but mesmerised by its fragility.

Moved by the biomorphic sculptors of the mid 20th century, she creates dramatic but utilitarian objects through a range of handbuilding techniques. Finding the form and balance of figurative sculptures is a finetuned process. Making the weight of the form sustain itself can take days with additional days to refine texture, contours, and negative space.

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Minji Song Self-portraits 2021 2021 Midfire recycled clay with midfire glaze Two parts; 15 x 12 x 40 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Minji Song is a contemporary ceramic artist, who utilises the versatility of clay and ceramic design processes as self-expression. Her work is a form of self-talk where she explores and questions her ideas and transfers them into the process of creating.

A self-portrait is an expression of comprehending oneself through their senses and perception in a particular moment or over a certain period of time. Who are you?

Who am I? Other than your name, occupation, thoughts, emotions, or is there something else? Are those things who we really are?

Is it important to ask these questions to ourselves? Why is it important?

She has been a finalist for North Queensland Ceramic Awards 2020 and Korea Tourist Souvenir Contest Awards 2017 issued

by Korea Tourism Organization. She also received the third prize in Kyungsangpookdo Souvenir Contest Awards in 2017. She has been presented in a group show in Daegu, Korea with other emerging young artists in 2018.

This work, Self-portraits, reflects an attempt to depict oneself as well as portraying a conversation and confrontation with oneself.

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Jodi Stewart Uncovering 2022 Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, spray paint 16 x 42 x 26 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I have been an artist for over 30 years with my work being selected for prizes including the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Prize and the Portia Geach Portrait Award. My sculptures have been selected as finalists in the Alice Prize, the Manning Art Prize and the Tom Bass Sculpture Prize.

My recent sculptural work has focused on using draped ceramic forms that are a metaphor for flesh, spirituality and the human experience. I also carve and shape, in clay, the contrasting textures of wood and bone.

The complexity of the folds of fabric, and the subtleties of white on white, are issues that have captivated many artists before me. The complex and ambiguous shapes of drapery are appealing. The visual attraction of the flowing curves and different textures of the work invite touch and compel the viewers gaze to trace the lyrical lines of the sculpture, emphasising the sensuality of the material and form.

I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Sculpture, at the National Art School, Sydney, in November 2015 and was offered an artist’s residency at Clifton Pugh’s Dunmoochin, where I lived and worked for almost three years. The theme of drapery and landscape continues to inform the majority of my work.

The drapery partly conceals the bone and this issue of concealment and whitewashing is currently being highlighted and worked out in our culture in relation to various forms of abuse and oppression, including sexual abuse and reclamation of Indigenous history.

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Simon Suckling Large Bowl with Red Bottle Brush 2020 Porcelain with clear glaze and hand printed onglaze decal 8 x 35 x 35 cm

Pink Blossom Jar With Bottle Brush 2020 Porcelain with underglaze hand printed onglaze decal and gold lustre 34 x 18 x 18 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Simon Suckling is a second-generation Ceramic Artist and designer who trained at the University of Southern Queensland.

After completing undergraduate studies Simon worked in a production pottery in Melbourne’s iconic Northcote Pottery for several years before entering the graduate program at Melbourne’s Monash University Graduating with an MA. Simon has since balanced a career as a studio artist whilst working in arts and cultural services for three Local Government authorities.

My current body of work is informed by the natural environment directly surrounding the place where I live and work. The work examines species of local flora and introduced flora that thrives at the interface of the natural and the built environment. Wheelthrown porcelain forms are the canvas for my botanic illustrations which are expressed as handprinted onglaze decals made by hand in my Brisbane studio.

Simon has studied porcelain in both Japan and China.

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Tom Summers Gardella Vase 2021 Stained stoneware paperclay, unglazed Two parts; 38 x 30 x 22 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Tom Summers is a queer designer/artist originally from Brisbane, Australia. His background is predominately fashion orientated, having studied fashion design in both Brisbane and Sweden. Albeit brief, the experience of working within the fashion industry after graduation left a yearning to find a deeper intimacy between the products we consume and our own internal life.

The Gardella Vase is a continuation of the architectural exploration that Tom Summers uses as a motif throughout his practice and, to him, forms part of an ongoing utopia, or a type of escapism, that exists in his mind. The inspiration for this escapist vision comes from his everyday built environment, morphing it into something familiar yet unrecognisable.

Ideas of perception and scale form a large part of Tom Summers’ visual play, and this piece is no exception. The small circle cut out of the finial on the lid, placed against the white background of a gallery space or bright room, grabs and holds the attention of the eye. This seemingly small focal point and the magnetism it brings sits in contrast to the feature of the rest of the piece and brings about a sense of poetic irony that one small dot can accomplish so much.

In trying to find some kind of reconciliation between these two ideas, Tom has been exploring ceramics as a medium since 2018 after discovering his affinity for the material and the permanence of the finished result.

His hand built pieces, made using stained paperclay slabs, utilise contrasts in scale, a boundless curiosity for colour and a precise understanding of harmony to form a meditative mood of quiet intensity.

Tom is currently participating as a part of the acclaimed associate program at JamFactory in Adelaide, South Australia.

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WEI-YEN TAI friendship 2022 Reduction fire Eight parts; various dimensions, 15 x 50 x 20 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I’m originally from Taiwan and studied ceramic art at the National Taiwan University of Arts, moving to Australia in 2017. Making ceramic art has always been my passion.

With the skills I developed over the years and two different backgrounds that I have been through, I am always trying to create new forms of pottery.

An old Chinese saying ‘associating with friends by tea and pottery’. Tea is not only a hot drink and thirst quencher but also a friendship bridge. I wish to bring joy and peace to the users through the unique design of the tea set. A cultural messenger that brings people together.

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Ellen Terrell Gardenia Lustre Bowl 2021 Silver and copper reduced lustre pigments on midfired stoneware glaze 6 x 26 x 26 cm

Pandanus Lustre Bowl 2021 Reduced lustre pigments on stoneware midfire glaze 7.5 x 33 x 33 cm

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About the Artist

About Gardenia Lustre Bowl

I started potting in the early 1980s at Glasshouse Pottery on the Sunshine Coast.

After a brief spell in New Guinea, I have since been living and working as a full time artist in the Daintree rainforest since 1983. The bulk of my work is thrown on the wheel, using porcelain and stoneware clays, carving right through the clay and scratching sgraffito patterns into coloured clay slips. For a few years I also produced work in bronze, but I much prefer working with clay. Around 2008 I began experimenting with lustre pigments made from silver and copper, and later worked with Bob Connery as my mentor, at Stokers Siding Pottery, NSW. I must admit that working with the lustre pigments has become akin to an addiction for me, adding that extra layer of decoration gives me a richness that I can’t get in any other way!

This small bowl depicts Gardenia flowers in a traditional Eastern style. The Australian species of this plant decorates my rainforest backyard in Daintree. My Gardenia image uses pigments which I make from silver and copper metals. A third firing embeds the pigments into the glazed surface of the pot.

The finished work looks calm and quiet to me – a good contrast to the time-consuming and somewhat complex process involved in the making and firing of the pigments. I never tire of the complexities of either this process or the tangle of the rainforest.

About Pandanus Lustre Bowl This bowl was made after walking through Tyto Wetlands, birdwatching. Crimson Finches were busy making nests amongst the spiky Pandanus foliage. The trees were silhouetted against the sky, no doubt providing good protection from potential predators of the Finches’ eggs and nestlings.

I have decorated the bowl with lustre pigments I make from silver and copper metals. The pigments are embedded into the glazed surface in a third firing. Making and firing these metallic pigments is time consuming and requires attention to detail.

I very much enjoy the contrast of depicting simple images through a somewhat complicated process.

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Sarah Therese Where I’m At 2022 Porcelain with underglaze and clear glaze Five parts; various dimensions, 25 x 40 x 25 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

For the past 10 years, I have enjoyed making with colour, paint and clay. My creative journey has been primarily self-taught, through regular practice and experimentation, whilst also periodically studying colour and design, surface design and visual arts at diploma level. I would describe myself as an emerging artist and happily became a finalist in the Siliceous Ceramics Awards in 2021.

In the morning, I often wander along dusty country back roads for my daily exercise.

I collect wildflowers along the way, as reference material for my latest creations. I add to these with plants and flowers from the gardens around my studio.

This collection of work is a representation of this natural inspiration of flowers, plants and birds in my daily surroundings. Throughout the pandemic, I particularly appreciated living in this beautiful part of the world – a peaceful, natural sanctuary on the Sunshine Coast, safe from many of the concerns and prolonged lockdowns experienced further afield in Australia and abroad.

My art is usually colourful and detailed, often inspired by nature in the grounds of my studio on the Sunshine Coast. Most recently, I created a series of ceramic pieces decorated utilising the ancient ceramic art of sgraffito. I enjoy planning the design and then drawing it on my wheel-thrown pieces, followed my many hours of detailed work with underglaze, paint brushes and stylus tools. This technique combines all the creative processes I enjoy most – drawing, painting and ceramics.

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Tatsuya Tsutsui Harmony of Rings 2021 Amakusa porcelain, celadon glaze, 1280˚C reduction, water etched, chrome oxide inlay 44.5 x 30 x 30 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Master porcelain artist, Tatsuya Tsutsui gravitated to ceramics after completing a degree in oil painting at Musashino Art University, Tokyo. He is now based in both Meringandan West, Queensland and Morai, Kyushu. As a permanent Australian resident, he works between both studios making individual work as well as collaborating with his partner, Johanna De Maine.

The Enso, a popular symbol of Buddhism and Japanese calligraphy, is made with a single brushstroke that creates an unclosed circle. It expresses the complex ideas of Buddhism, in a simple, minimalist stroke.

The symbol can also illustrate the cyclic nature of life: birth, death and rebirth.

Nature, throughout the year, goes through this cyclic process of birth, death and rebirth as a result of the seasons. The Sun perpetually rises and sinks in a circular fashion, bringing light and life. The Enso can also symbolise the harmonious relationship and balance between all things.

Harmony of Rings explores the notion that when the two different rings symbolising nature and humanity intersect, harmony is achieved.

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Anna Turnbull Pre-Adventure Habitats (Group of three) 2022 Terracotta clay, textiles and earthenware clear glaze Three parts; various dimensions, 50 x 35 x 35 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Anna’s practice encapsulates her experience of the natural environment and attempts to reflect the colours, textures and forms drawn from around the Moreton Bay region. Anna’s work is created using a receptive walking methodology as a contextual and conceptual mechanism. Anna is a walking artist. In October 2021 Anna was awarded a Regional Arts Development grant to support creative concept development and to work with artist and educator Dr Jacqueline Scotcher in an individualised 18-week academic creative arts mentorship program.

Spontaneous forms evoking feelings of emplacement and reverence for nature.

The work conveys a nuance of mass and shape that seeks to provide a safe habitat for the sense of place felt through my walking experience. The grouped forms were created within a larger body of conceptual work created using a reflective walking methodology as a means of creative process.

By walking and observing the Deception Bay foreshore at differing times of the day, I observe how the spaces and light change how the landscape appears. From observational sketches I reflect on how to represent the local flora using clay, drawings and textiles in an attempt to represent the forms, colours and textures that I experience.

This work is an attempt to express my reflections of the natural spaces through a series of ceramics objects, drawings and abstracted visual art works.

November 2021 saw Anna selected to exhibit April 2022 at Caboolture Regional Gallery as part of the Uplift program for emerging Moreton Bay artists and will be undertaking a six month creative residency at the Caboolture Creative Hub in early 2022.

Anna’s practice is actively supported by the Moreton Bay Arts Council of which she is a contributing member.

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Prue Venables Pair of black triangulated forms 2022 Limoges porcelain, reduction fired, black glaze Two parts; 10 x 30 x 14 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Education: 1995: MA, Fine Art – Ceramics, RMIT

These pieces are thrown from Limoges porcelain then gently altered and with a new base added at the leather-hard stage. The rims are triangulated with clear points of articulation. In contrast, the bases form softer triangles. The twisting motion plays with notions of origin and movement. The making and firing is highly risky as joins can easily separate and crack while porcelain yearns to return to its original position, but all this dissolves into the simplicity of the final object.

It is the playing with notions of possibility that entices me.

Selected awards: Awards Finalist, XV International Biennial Ceramics, Manises, Spain; Ceramics Prize, Victorian Craft Award; 9th Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft, ADC; HM, Gyeonggi International Biennale, Korea Finalist Officine Saffi, Milan; Commendation, STILL, Australian Still Life Award; First Prize, Clunes Ceramic Award; Fellow RSA, UK; Third Prize, World Design, New York, Japan; HM – International Ceramics, Mino, Japan; Fletcher Challenge Award – Premier Award; 15th National Craft Award, NT. Selected teaching: Royal College Art, London; Coordinator, RMIT University; Konstfack Art and Design, Sweden; University Westminster, UK; Guldagergaard Ceramics, Denmark; Unitec – NZ; Fine Art School, Lahore, Pakistan; SMB, Ballarat; Harrow College of Higher Education, London.

Collections: Museum Fine Art, Houston; NGV; Powerhouse; Art Gallery WA; Art Gallery SA; Fuping Museum, China; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Bendigo Art Gallery; Shepparton Art Gallery; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; Museum and Art Gallery NT; Hamilton Art Gallery; NGA. 153

Tania Vrancic Freedom – Leaf Obsession – tall 2022 Imperial porcelain slip, black stain, ceramic pencil, clear gloss glaze inside 26 x 9 x 9 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

In 2005, Tania Vrancic began her ceramics journey at the Potters Society in Canberra and is constantly continuing her art education attending workshops, conferences and online classes. From 2012 to 2018 she participated in various group exhibitions in Canberra and surrounding areas.

For some time now I have been pursuing freedom in my work. I have found that my best work is made when I am ‘in the zone’ having fully let go of any inhibitions, preconceived ideas and expectations, taking risks to push the boundaries of my practice further. Music is crucial in taking me to a place of freedom where I create out of intuition rather than logic. Intuitive brushstrokes, sgraffito and ceramic pencil mark making relate to the long walks on Red Hill over the lockdown season we have recently come out of. During my walks I began picking up and photographing leaves in their various shapes and stages of decay, it soon became a leaf obsession. In my work I enjoy abstracting both the distant view as well as the details such as leaves.

In 2017, Tania had her first solo show, Rest, at FORM Studio and Gallery. In 2018 Tania won the peoples’ choice award in the Klytie Pate Ceramics Award, at the Arts Council Mansfield, Victoria and was a finalist in the 2018 biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards. Tania’s second solo show was in 2019 at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka, ACT. Tania enjoys sharing her processes and work at open studios and designer markets.

Her vision is to concentrate on researching, designing and creating ceramic artworks with a view to exhibit in galleries in Canberra and beyond. COVID-19 lockdowns have provided a unique opportunity to enhance her studio practice.

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Sally Walk A Little Off Centre 2022 Midfire clay with black slip and clear glaze 65 x 23 x 30 cm

Undulations 2021 Midfire clay, underglaze and clear glaze 74 x 38 x 38 cm

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I am directly influenced by my surroundings – especially the beauty in patterns that are apparent in both natural and human made objects and environments. These patterns and my perception of them is also influenced by my reflections on the human condition.

I am forever trying to understand my place in the world and so my work is very much a symbolic discovery of self. A love of line and strong contrast is ever present in my work, with the use of black utilised as a metaphor for strength and determination.

About the Artist Sally Walk is a Melbourne based ceramicist who has been working in clay for 30 years.

She has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. Most recently at Taoxichuan in Jingdezhen China, and Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan. In 2015 she was awarded the Lorenzo il Magnifico Award – Ceramics at the Florence Biennale. Her work is held in private and public institutions internationally.

Walk is also a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.

In her ceramic work she uses form and texture to explore the idea of façades and the way the outer self is used to facilitate belonging. These aspects of human nature manifest in her work as spikes, spots, carving, heavy texture, and present as organic adornments to the surface of her work. Walks ceramics are totems of human nature and its foibles – and the power to sculpt our raw, foundational materials into new and varied forms.

About Undulations The perfect imperfection of being human is a fascination of mine. Can a drive for perfection ever be achieved when it is such a subjective concept: what others deem perfect might not be perfect to another. The concept of imperfection is an interesting part of life, but still perfection is something I have trouble letting go of. Perfection holds a powerful place in the contemporary psyche.

For this reason, there is always a sense of order and symmetry in my artwork, despite the wild experimentation with the limits of ceramic possibilities. My work is technically precise, which prior to the addition of surface decorations can seem almost perfect. It is then carved into with freehand patterns, textures and undulating shapes that shift the veneer of perfection and push my work to the edge. It is no longer perfect, yet in the imperfection beauty is found.

About A Little Off Centre Repeated Melbourne lockdowns have taken me on a journey from a focus on perfection in ceramic technique to a new perspective on my understanding of what is perfection, one where it is acceptable to be a little ‘off centre’.

There is a deliberate relinquish of control, finding the beauty in the hidden spaces of morphed organic forms.

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Catherine Ward I didn’t learn to make sourdough, but I did learn a new language 2021 Handbuilt stoneware with water etched and sculptural details – matte glaze exterior, satin glaze interior 29 x 11 x 15 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Catherine Ward creates hand built, stoneware ceramics in her studio in Geelong, Victoria.

This work is a reaction to living in Victoria through extensive COVID-19 related lockdowns. The learning of various skills such as making sourdough bread went ‘viral’ during lockdowns – particularly in the early stages when everyone was a little less jaded.

There was one skill however that we all became proficient at without even realising it, and that was the language of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our newspapers and emails were flooded with phrases such as ‘working from home’, ‘contact tracing’ and ‘essential worker’.

On the rare occasions that we could meet up with friends or family we talked of such things as reproduction rates, super spreader events, modelling, flattening the curve and PPE. For our children ‘remote learning’ was a phrase never previously uttered, but it soon became a focus of discussion every single day. Is this a language that is now permanently integrated into our lives?

Her work reflects the extensive list of what motivates and inspires her including street art, vintage signs, black and white photography, Eduardo Chillida exhibition posters, M.C. Escher, African mud cloth, and the patterns of antique silver. She loves to explore contrast and balance, line and pattern; often also incorporating text into her work. Pieces are built using coiling, pinching or slab construction and then added to with hand painted underglaze detail, sgraffito, mono printing, water etching or sculptural details. Patina and imperfections are embraced, with her use of pattern and detail becoming more relaxed and expressive over time.

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Timothy White Reflection 2020 Porcelain with artists own glazes, gold lustre overlay with yellow glazed interior 26 x 18 cm

Amalgam 2020 Porcelain with artists own glazes, gold and various lustres 27 x 18 cm

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Shimmering Light 2020 Spherical stoneware, wheelthrown and hand finished.

Layered with artists own glazes and overlaid with lustres 27 x 19 cm

About the Artist

About Reflection

Tim began making ceramics because he was interested in the potential and uncertainty of the outcome.

This porcelain vessel presents with my own glazes and a gold lustre overlay, with yellow glazed interior.

He has progressed from using mainly stoneware clays to having also become intrigued with porcelain and the process of using lustres on his pieces.

About Amalgam This porcelain vessel has been glazed with multiples of my own glazes, with gold lustre on the neck, and various lustres over body of the piece.

The clay is firstly wheel-thrown, turned to shape; bisque fired then glazed, either sprayed or dipped; a second firing is done to create a finished glazed piece; a lustre or additional glaze is added and the piece is fired a third time, with temperatures up to 1300°C.

About Shimmering Light This spherical stoneware form has been wheel-thrown and hand finished. This narrow-necked vessel has been layered with a number of my own glazes and overlaid with lustres.

His current work is a reflection of his great interest in the process of working with porcelain, and his own glazes also overlaid with lustres to achieve outstanding results.

The idea of producing these vessels is to give people pleasure. For the vessel to occupy a space and to enhance this space, whether it is in a home, an office or a public space.

Tim has exhibited widely, and has work held in numerous private collections in Australia and overseas. He was very pleased to have been selected as a Finalist in the recent Victorian Craft Awards.

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Joanne Wood Ancient Beauty 2022 Stoneware, handbuilt, bisqued, pit fired and sealed.

Handmade earthenware beads fired and on hemp string, sealed 18 x 18 x 18 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

I began my pottery journey almost 50 years ago, with school holiday lessons and the spark that was ignited has flamed my lifelong interest. I obtained a certificate III in Visual Arts while living on Thursday Island. I now live beside the sea at Salonika Beach, Queensland. I use Australian made clay and my pottery pieces are individually handmade, often marked with natural flotsam from the beach. That is pieces of washed up coral, shells and seeds. I then fire these pieces in my studio kiln or alternatively using the ancient technique of pit firing. My work has been featured in several exhibitions, won awards (First Prize and Highly Commended – Sarina Art Extravaganza) and I have taught pottery in a number of different environments within the Mackay region. Commissions include fish, bowls and a collaboration with my daughter, Alice Wood to make traditional African pots with hand painted motifs.

In my youth I was introduced to the beauty of pit firing and now many years later I have returned to this ancient practice.

This piece was hand built using coils and then burnished, bisque and pit fired. The embellishment of white handmade beads strung on hemp rope was added after firing which gives the appearance of the neck and décolletage of a woman of any nationality, wearing a necklace.

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Tian You Red Plum Blossom After Spring Snow 2022 Porcelain, black porcelain slip, copper red glaze, Chun glaze 11 x 14 x 14 cm

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About the Artist

About the Work

Tian You is a studio potter, diver and mad nature lover.

Chinese red plum blossoms in early spring. It can flower even in cold snow. Therefore, it is a symbol for resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity. I wish this vase to impart courage to people.

Her lust for perfection determines the high quality of her work. She uses porcelain with exceptional studio developed glazes. The incorporation of shapes and decorations is the pathway she chooses to express inspirations. She composes ceramic poems that whispering sensations from Shangri-La.

The plum tree is hugging around the vase which has a steady strong shape. I create different views around the vase as it changes its aspect at every turn.

Tian was born and grew up in China. She moved to Melbourne, Australia to complete a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture.

She sat in on a wheel throwing hobby class in 2014. Since then, she has dedicated herself to learning, practicing and expanding her ceramic craftsmanship. It is like an eagle ray exploring the oceans.

I throw and trim the vase on wheel. The colour and texture of bare porcelain is an ideal snow background. I use a Chinese calligraphy brush to paint the trunk and branches with black slip. It creates patterns and more importantly the different textures of aged and young bark. To build the thickness of copper red glaze, I use a water dropper to dot the blossom. Chun glaze forms the thin snow rested on the tree. It further sculpts the natural surface of branches.

During her journey, past experiences direct the future outcome in her work. She welcomes the influence from her traditional arts upbringing, tight bond with nature and the knowledge of landscape architecture design, gratefully. They make unique interesting work though her mind and body.

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