LYNDA DRAPER
AN UNCANNY LIKENESS It’s difficult to escape the flight of the imagination in Lynda Draper’s new work. Set within a dream-like milieu, an anthology of wondrous and majestic objects float and bob in space. Referencing kings and queens, and the flamboyance of the French Baroque, these large filigree works are woven from clay, and while not explicitly figurative, they possess familiar facial markers which bring into play the metaphysical qualities attributed to inanimate objects by human memory and experience. Draper spent the European winter near Versailles, where marble sculptures set among the gardens are shrouded in the winter months to prevent frost from taking its toll on precarious limbs. And while the influence from her residency is certainly evident, rather than stimulating work of this nature, it has merely activated and amplified elements of her recent practice. From smaller ‘tiaras’ in 2016, her work has evolved into sizeable ‘crowned portraits’ of clay. Hovering somewhere between the real and the unreal, these works are architectural and figurative, formed and formless, literal and fictional. They bewitch and amuse, revealing multiple characters and personalities only after careful observation. The medium of clay is so exquisitely anomalous in Draper’s work that it becomes, to the viewer, an afterthought rather than a dialogue prompt for works that are traditionally contextualised by their medium. And this is how it should be. Clay has undergone a renaissance in the past decade or so; no longer is it in the domain of craft. With a strong conceptual narrative and by pushing the medium beyond its natural limits, ceramicists like Draper can be counted among Australia’s significant artists whose contribution is holding ground in contemporary art discourse.
Portrait of Lynda Draper by Amina Barolli
Photography: Robin McIntyre Hearfield Design: Daniel Cordner Design
And yet, it is the use of clay which makes Draper’s work so utterly extraordinary. Ambitious in scale, virtuosic in composition, she has the ability to make the unmakeable. Drawing from a conventional practice of coiling and handbuilding, the maker’s hand is evident on every square inch of her work. The uneven coils are shaped by the impressions of her grip on the responsive nature of the material. But Draper somehow dispenses with the inherent limitations of the soft clay medium, manipulating it in a way which defies physics and logic. Lynda Draper’s award-winning installation for the Sidney Myer Australian Ceramic Award in 2019 is testament to an artist whose practice has consolidated. Her ambition, robust conceptual thinking and technical understanding of materials have reached a zenith which has been rewarded with one of the most prestigious prizes in Australian art.
Winter, 2019, hand-built earthenware, glazes, 102x55x55cm
Sage, 2019, hand-built earthenware, glazes, 106x38x40cm
Lynda Draper Born 1962. Lives Thirroul, NSW SOLO EXHIBITIONS SINCE 2000 2019 Sleepwalking, Galerie Lefebvre & Fils, Paris 2017 The Other, Gallerysmith, Melbourne 2014 Summon, Gallerysmith, Melbourne 2013 Revisit, Firstdraft, Sydney 2010 Home Altar, Gallerysmith, Melbourne HOME ALTARED, Shepparton Art Museum 2008 Kangaroo, Gallerysmith, Melbourne 2006 Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney 2005 Galerie Marianne Brand, Geneva 2003 Ceramic Art, Sydney 2002 Haecceity Arts, Melbourne 2001 Mura Clay Gallery, Sydney SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2019 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Gallerysmith Meditation on a Bone: Albert Tucker beyond the Modern, Heide Museum of Modern Art 2018 Bad Mannerisms, Galerie pompom, Sydney 2016 Weird Ceramic, Gippsland Art Gallery Collective Material, Craft Melbourne Overundersidewaysdown, Manly Art Museum, curated by Glenn Barkley 602 Art Fair, Melbourne, Gallerysmith 2015 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Gallerysmith TURN TURN TURN: The Studio Ceramics Tradition at the National Art School Biggie Smalls, Casula Powerhouse Gesture and the Hand: drawing from the Margaret Lawrence Australian Ceramic Collection, Blue Urchin Gallery, Victoria 2014 Loose Canon, Artbank headquarters Home and Hosed, Kudos Gallery, Sydney 2013 Home & Hosed, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Zoologica, Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney 2012 Cross-Pollination, COFA space, UNSW Man and Beast, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney Anim(us), Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney 2011 SOFA, Chicago, USA, represented by John Natsoulas Gallery CAA, San Francisco USA, John Natsoulas Gallery The Narrative Knot, Manly Regional Gallery IN CLAY, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery 2009 Ceramics Trienniale, Manly Museum and Art Gallery Ivy Troupes, acga Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne
2008 2007 2006 2005
2004 2003 2001 2000 1998
1997
White Heat: Social, Political, Cultural issues, Manly Art Gallery and Museum Stella Downer Fine Art, ceramics exhibition in conjunction with Ceramics Triennale 09 Wollongong City Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Wollongong City Gallery IAC Members Exhibition, Qujaing Exhibition centre, Xian, China Rebirth, Gallerysmith, Melbourne Salute, Fusions Gallery, Brisbane Melbourne Art Fair, Royal exhibition Building, Stella Downer Fine Art Bloodlines: Art and the Horse, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery Celebration, Manly Art Gallery, Sydney Clay Statements, Verge, 11th National Ceramics Conference, Qld Crust, Gold Coast Art Gallery 54th Concorso Internazionale della Ceramica D’art, International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy Europ’art, Galerie Marianne Brand, Geneva The Hollow and the Whole – Contemporary Ceramics, Delmar Gallery, Sydney Vessel: Diverse, Quadrivium, Sydney Surface, Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney White Out, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne Ceramics – The Australian & New Zealand Context, Campbelltown City Art Gallery Hypercrafting, Monash University Serenely Vital, Haecceity Arts Ceramics – The Australian Context, Campbelltown City Art Gallery 4th Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics, National Art Centre of Fine Arts, Egypt 50th Concorso Internazionale della Ceramica D ‘art, Faenza Museum, Italy Australian Ceramics at SOFA, Chicago, USA
AWARD EXHIBITIONS 2019 WINNER Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award, Shepparton Art Museum 2017 Salon des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 2016 International Gold Coast Ceramic Award 2015 City of Hobart Art Award 2014 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2013 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 62nd Blake Prize for Religious Art The Fishers Ghost Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre 2012 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2011 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
2010 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2007 Cowra Art Prize, (Merit Award) Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2006 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramic Award, Shepparton Sass & bide – COFA Art Award 2005 Premier Acquisition Award 54th Concorso Internazionale della Ceramica D’art, International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy International Ceramic Award, Carouge Museum, Switzerland 2004 Maroogal Women’s Art Prize (2nd Prize) 2002 18th International Gold Coast Ceramic Award (Acquisition) Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramic Award, Shepparton 99, 00, 01 WINNER Port Hacking National Pottery Award WINNER (Ceramics section) Fisher’s Ghost Art Award 1997 WINNER 16th International Gold Coast Award Fletcher Challenge Ceramic Award, Auckland Museum, NZ 16th International Gold Coast Ceramic Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, Qld Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown City Gallery 1995 Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award, Auckland Museum, NZ 1990 3rd Commonwealth Bank National Ceramic Award, Canberra, ACT COLLECTIONS International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy (2005) IAC Collection, FLICAM Museum, Fuping China (2008) Renwick Alliance Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, USA (2000) F’A’Grue Collection Castelli, Teramo, Italy (1997) Collection of the Dutch Royal Family (1991) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2009, 2003, 2019) Shepparton Art Museum (2006, 2010, 2019) Campbelltown City Art Gallery (1997) Gold Coast City Art Gallery (1997, 2002) University of Wollongong (2012, 2001) Artbank (2014, 2016) Myer Foundation (1986) Bluestone Collection (2014)
Front & back cover image: Portrait 1, view 1 & 2, 2019, handbuilt earthenware, glazes, 90x54x47cm
170-174 Abbotsford St North Melbourne 3051 gallerysmith.com.au