The original use of an anvil was to beat material into form. This hasn’t changed within the building of modernity and the manifestation of fabricating forms and structures to transform our environment and reality.
1. Anvil, 2013
$6,500
Raku Fired Ceramic; W310mm x L710mm
2.
Raku Fired Ceramic; W260mm x L410mm
$4,500
Arteries, are a critical part of our cardiovascular system, are blood vessels that distribute oxygen-rich blood to your entire body. This is the same within Papatūānuku those tube-like vessels and the muscles inside the earth ensure organs and tissues have the oxygen and nutrients they need to function.
Earth Artery, 2019
$7,500
In fission, energy is gained by splitting heavy atoms, which in the end becomes leftover material and forms for the sake of modernity, which I am fascinated with, that visual look of those forms and colours from used materials and industries.
3. Fission, 2019
Raku Fired Ceramic; W410mm x L720mm
Visceral can be felt in or as if in the internal organs of the body, not intellectual but instinctive, unreasoning and dealing with crude or elemental emotions which are earthy.
4. Visceral, 2022
$5,500
Raku fired ceramics; W270mm x L470mm
$7,500
Raku Fired Ceramic; W310mm x L540mm
The presence of a divinity and the strange, a numinous beauty of an ancient landmark, that concept of the sacred and our experience of a mysterious or majestic presence inspiring dread and fascination can’t always be measured or quantified within modernity and this has always moved me to try an emulate the non-quantifiable or spiritual awareness in my own art works.
5. Numinous, 2022
I see my work in Pōhutukawa as a connection, in particular remembering those who have passed from this world since the last heliacal rising of Matariki in the month of Pipiri. The journey the spirit undertakes along Te Ara Wairua, the pathway of the spirits, descending down the aka or roots of the pōhutukawa tree, to disappear into the underworld. Based around the memory of urbanisation, when a generation left their iwi or hapu to work in the cities, losing their tikanga and identity while seeking out a living. These objects carry the forms and memory of industries of this urbanised-generation, my way of remembering their presence. Forced to suppress their spiritual connection to their mana in the hope of a better living within this modernity.
“Modern man, however, has left the realm of the unknown and the mysterious, and settled down in the realm of the functional and the routine” Suzi Gabli, 1991.
Tracy Keith 2023
Biography
Raised in Tokoroa, Keith talks about his memories of the influence the local timber mill had on the way people behaved and how they lived. This is one example of many towns in New Zealand that were established in order to serve a major industry like paper mills, smelters and freezing works. Their largely Māori and Polynesian workforce becoming the local inhabitants who often relocated there for work which some have remained but most have moved on to other industries. Keith’s works appear to embody the heavy industrial foundations these towns grew from. Their crude appearance reflects the stresses and extremes that working in these factories and living in these communities brought with them. Many of his vessels show cracks and ruptures from the firing process – physically representing what Keith describes as the ‘breaks’ that many families had from their ancestral lands in-order to relocate for work opportunities.
CV
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2011 – 2013
Master of Fine Arts: Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design – Auckland.
2009
Diploma of Adult Teaching: Te Wananga o Aotearoa – Rotorua.
1993 – 1996
Diploma of Māori Visual Arts: Toi-Ohomai Waiariki Institute of Technology – Rotorua
GROUP & SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Te Whanga a Reipae
Māori Artist Group Exhibition - mix media, Wairau Māori Art Gallery, Whangārei, New Zealand.
2023 Burn it all Down
Group Exhibition - Mix Media, Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton, New Zealand.
2022 - 2023 Auahatia
Group Exhibition of Contemporary Māori, Art Webb’s Galley, Wellington, New Zealand.
2022 Numinous
Solo Exhibition, Ākina Gallery, Hastings, New Zealand.
2022 The Portage Ceramic Awards;
One work selected, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
2022 UKU Clay Hawkes Bay Ceramic Awards
Arts Inc Heretaunga Gallery, Hastings, New Zealand.
2022 What Things Say About Us
Group Exhibition Ceramics, Quiet Dog Gallery, Nelson.
2022 Candles & Sticks
Group Exhibition of Artist & Designers. Hired Gallery Space – Melbourne Victoria, Australia.
2022 Tuākana Tēna
Tutor and Student Exhibition from Toimairangi – Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Ahuriri
Contemporary Gallery, Napier, New Zealand.
2021 Her Thick Old Skin
Group Exhibition: Tracy Keith, Essi Airisniemi, Ann Shelton. Bartley & Company Art Gallery, Wellington New Zealand.
2020 Whitu - Matariki
Group Exhibition Masterworks Gallery, Auckland New Zealand.
2020 Whenua - The Conscious Land
Solo Exhibition Bartley & Company Art Gallery, Wellington New Zealand.
2020 Matatoki - Mata ā Waka
Group Exhibition Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga New Zealand.
2019-2020 Dirty Ceramics
Ceramic Group Exhibition Dowse Art Gallery, Lower Hutt City New Zealand.
2019 He oko nā Hine - Vessels of our Sacred Female Deity
Solo Exhibition Pātaka Art Gallery & Museum, Porirua City New Zealand.
2018 Nau Mai Place – Exhibition of contemporary Maori Art Group Exhibition Arts Inc, Heretaunga New Zealand.
2018 Hae Haea – An exhibition of clay and print
Percy Thompson Gallery, Taranaki New Zealand.
2016 -2018 Whenua Hou - New Māori Ceramics
Travelling Ceramic Group Exhibition Sponsored by the Tauranga Art Gallery & Objectspace Auckland New Zealand – featured at Tauraunga Art Gallery Toi, Te Manawa Palmerston North, Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui, Object Space Gallery, Whangarei Art Gallery, Mangere Arts Centre, Franklin Arts Centre, New Zealand.
2014 Te Pu o Te Wheke - Reaching the World
Te Atinga Indigenous Gathering Exhibition, Kaikohe New Zealand.
2013 XSeven
MFA Graduant Exhibition Saint Georges Road Gallery Whitiecliffe College of Art & Design, Auckland New Zealand.
2012 Toi Ngāpuhi
Ngāpuhi Festival Exhibition, Kaikohe New Zealand.
2011 Ancient Mariner
Group Exhibition Kura Gallery, Wellington New Zealand.
2010 Te Taiea
Te Atinga Indigenous Gathering Exhibition, Rotorua New Zealand.
2007 Raku
Solo Exhibition Lesa Gallery, Petone Wellington New Zealand.
2006 Old Habits Die Hard
Group Exhibition Tracy Keith, Daniel Couper & Daryn McBride Edge Gallery, Auckland New Zealand.
2002 Matou Atoa
Group Exhibition Edge Gallery, Auckland New Zealand.
2001 Young Guns
Group Exhibition Rotorua Gallery + Museum, Rotorua New Zealand.
1999 Pacifica
Group Exhibition Edge Gallery, Auckland New Zealand.
1996 Tu Hono
Diploma Graduant Exhibition Waiariki Institute of Technology, Rotorua New Zealand.
1996 Waikato Gas Ceramic Awards
Ceramic Exhibition, Hamilton New Zealand.
SELECTED AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS / COLLECTION AND COMMISSIONS
2021 Wana Ake Festival Celebrating Makers: UKU-Clay
Demonstration and workshops by four ceramic artists at Te Papa Gallery & museum
Wellington & Wellington City Council, Wellington New Zealand.
2018 –
2021
Senior Art Technician
Te Rau Karamu Marae, Wharenui – Te Whaioranga o Te Whaiao: New Marae Project Massey University Wellington.
2020 Wallace Street Mural
Wellington City Council Mural Commission with Artist Sheyne Tuffery, Wellington New Zealand.
2020 IG Artist Residency
Blumhardt Foundation New Zealand.
2020 Fired Up Symposium – Festival of Ceramics
New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
2020 Taniwha Sculpture
Ceramic Sculpture, Dowse Art Gallery Collection, Lower Hutt City New Zealand.
2019 Whenua Vessel Ceramic
James Wallace Collection, Auckland New Zealand.
2019 Whenua Vessel Ceramic
Pātaka Art Gallery & Museum Collection, Porirua City New Zealand.
2013 Lecture International Conference
Attended an educational conference for the International Journal of Arts and Science: Academic Multidiscipline Conference Florence Italy. Delivered a lecture on my teaching and art practice. Florence, Italy.
1996 Art Award Ceramic
Premier Winner of the prestigious Waikato Gas Ceramic Awards Waikato Gallery & Museum, Hamilton New Zealand.