30th Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award 2016 by Home of the Arts

FOREWORD Welcome the 30th Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award; one of Australia’s longestrunning awards for Ceramic art. We have recently witnessed a revival of ceramic art, with contemporary approaches of this ancient medium showcased at art fairs, biennales and contemporary galleries around the world. For over three decades the Gold Coast City Gallery has been at the forefront and championed the ceramic medium courtesy of the Ceramic Art Award. Established in 1982 by Ruth Lyons, the then Chair of the newly formed Gold Coast Ceramic Committee, with the support of The Gold Coast Potters Association and The Sculptors Society, the aim of the Ceramic Art Award was to encourage the creation and appreciation of art in clay. The inaugural Award boasted $1,000 as total prize money: $500 awarded to a functional piece and $500 for a sculptural non-functional piece. Prior to the opening of our current Gallery in 1986, artworks were exhibited for four years next door in the Foyer of the Gold Coast City Council Building. Through the dedication of ceramic committee volunteers, potters, sculptors, sponsors and Gallery staff, this Award has remained one of Australia’s most significant ceramic awards. Over time the format has evolved. Artists from abroad were invited to participate in 1995 and the following year the word International was inserted in the title of the Award. More recently, in 2008 it became biennial and a small display by local ceramic artists is held in conjunction. This year we are delighted to showcase self-portraits by participants from Liberty Community Connect in Me, You & Us!; located in the Gallery Foyer. The Ceramic Art Award has also been the driving force behind the development of what is one of regional Australia’s most significant collections of contemporary Ceramic Art. With one major prize of $10,000 for an overall winner and $5,000 for acquisitions, selected artworks become an important addition to the Gallery’s permanent collection. My sincere thanks to this year’s guest Judge Glenn Barkley for his thoroughly professional approach and decisions required to short-list artists for this much awaited diverse and dynamic exhibition. In 2016 we welcome artworks from across Australia including six local artists, the United Kingdom, United States, South Korea and New Zealand. Congratulations to the 51 artists who were selected for the exhibition and thank you to all of the artists who entered, for it is their contribution that gives the Award its strength. Finally, I would like to thank The Friends of the Art Centre for their continued support, in particular funding the People’s Choice Award.

Tracy Cooper-Lavery Gallery Director Gold Coast City Gallery

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Images from the Gold Coast City Gallery archive page 3 / 30th GCICAA 2016

Above: Images from the Gold Coast City Gallery archive Opposite: Installation images from previous Ceramic Art Awards page 4 / 30th GCICAA 2016

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2016 JUDGE

Glenn Barkley is a Sydney-based independent curator. He was previously senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2008–14) and curator of the University of Wollongong Art Collection (1996–2007). Major curatorial projects include Almanac: The Gift of Ann Lewis AO, MCA (2009–10), Making it New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art, MCA (2009), Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay Collection (co-curated with Dr Deborah Hart), National Gallery of Australia (2003–04, and toured), Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context (co-curated with Peter Fay), Monash University and Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney (2008). In 2011 he curated Tell me tell me: Australian and Korean Contemporary Art 1976–2011, an exchange exhibition between the MCA and the NMOCA, Seoul, Korea. The following year he curated Volume One: MCA Collection, for the museum’s new collection galleries, and co-curated with Lesley Harding the exhibition Ken Whisson: As if. In 2013 he curated South of No North: Laurence Aberhart, William Eggleston and Noel McKenna and String Theory, a survey of Australian Indigenous textile arts. Recent projects include co-curating with Lesley Harding a major retrospective of Australian artist Aleks Danko at the MCA Australia last year. In 2016 he was the curator of the Australian Ceramics Biennial overundersidewaysdown held at Manly Art Gallery and Museum, NSW. Barkley has written extensively on Australian art and culture for magazines such as Art Monthly, Artist Profile and Art and Australia. He is co-founder and co-Director of The Curators’ Department an independent curatorial agency based in Sydney, Australia. Barkley is also a practicing artist working primarily with ceramics and his work was recently included in the 2016 Adelaide Biennale, AGSA. He is represented by Utopia Art Sydney, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Heiser Gallery, Brisbane.

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Glenn BARKLEY THE JUDGING PROCESS I approach ceramics as an enthusiast as much as curator or artist. My responses are visceral and tactile. I have a deep appreciation of production and functional ceramics through my mother-in-law who is a production potter based in Berry on the NSW South Coast. I have great pleasure in using her, and others, handmade production ware every day. I also get great pleasure in looking at the work of artists who work with ceramics in a more sculptural way and I have worked with many ceramic artists in my professional life. I have been fortunate as a curator to visit many of the world’s great museums and galleries. LOOKING is a simple but key part of being a curator and looking, seeing, thinking and feeling about ceramics is central to my curatorial and artistic life. I am in awe of any artist who has spent a life time making and refining their work. I have championed artists who for one reason or another have been ignored by the mainstream contemporary art-world and have had an obsessive dedication to their practice. I mention this because, for a long time, ceramics has occupied a bit of a marginal position but this is starting to change. I am also interested in those artists who may have come to clay more recently after working in other fields and who may approach it as a way to talk about ideas as much as material. As both maker and curator my tastes are broad, and where they may not overlap with others, I hope I’m mature enough to acknowledge that and be inclusive of what’s important and real and honest. Being asked to judge something is frankly not my favourite thing and it does reveal my prejudices, but that’s why they choose me to judge the prize. Next time they will choose someone else and after that someone else.

Image opposite: Glenn Barkley. Courtesy of MY Media Sydney page 7 / 30th GCICAA 2016

Kelly AUSTIN Born 1985 Lives and works in Tasmania, Australia

My work combines opposing wheel thrown forms; the vessel and non-vessel; the familiar and nonfamiliar; and the practical and abstract to extend the perception of three dimensional objects associated with practical use. This occurs in still life painting and my practice investigates the relationship in three dimensions. I use colour and the placement of objects to give a sense of harmony and balance. A range of ceramic materials is used to disrupt their cultural status; the preciousness of porcelain sits next to earthen terracotta. I am interested in the tension between the tactility of my work and its display in the art gallery context.

paused composition 1 2016 | stoneware and terracotta, wheel thrown, glaze | 25 x 30 x 90cm | $ 1300 Courtesy of the artist

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Stephen BIRD Born 1964 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

Stephen Bird is known for his modelled and painted ceramic forms which idiosyncratically re-interpret the 18th and 19th century ornamental and souvenir wares that were mass-produced in factories such as in Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire in the British Midlands. While these pieces appear traditional at first glance, his subjects have always been subversive responses to contemporary aspects of popular culture, history, war, violence, politics and religion, within universal themes of such as love, death, birth and life. Recent works have become more improvised in their exploration of form through hand building, press moulding and a painterly application of slip, pigment and glaze.

Men from Korea 2015 | clay, slip, pigment, glaze | 65 x 20 x 20cm and 57 x 20 x 20cm | $ 10500 Courtesy of the artist and Heiser Gallery

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Amanda BROMFIELD Born 1959 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

My work is about women and their place within history and culture. It explores how society views women and how women view themselves. Untitled references the ideology of Anne Summer’s Damned Whores and God’s Police and Albert Tucker’s Images of Modern Evil. I use colour to tell a story. Each work is multisided and creates its own diorama. I make my own glazes, glazes that are rich and luscious. I want to invite the viewer to touch the surface of my work, to follow the patterns of colour as the glaze blends and flows on its path around and down my sculpture.

Untitled 2016 | ceramic, cone 6, glazes, under glazes, oxides | 32 x 28 x 14cm | $ 650 Courtesy of the artist

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Madeleine CHILD Born 1959 Lives and works in New Zealand

It’s fossicked, artisan. It’s readymade, a Readymade. It’s a lump, lumpen. It’s two faced, five faced, red faced, blue faced. It’s ikebana, a twig pot. It’s form not function. It’s drilled, filled, chipped. It’s spotty, freckled. It’s Gaucho’s nose. It’s gift wrapped, a twig pot. It’s a clod, a claeg. It’s those pots with holes to let the spirits out. It’s gold toothed, petaled; It’s he loves me, he loves me not. It’s broken bottle glass picked up, green brown clear. It’s sancai, t’ang. It’s they call me mellow yellow. It’s Opera cake, a stack, a club. It’s iced, sliced, spliced. It’s stuck with muck. It’s uku

Pottery Made Simple (purple) 2016 | ceramic, plate, clod, stack | 10 x 40 x 30cm | $ 400 Courtesy of the artist

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Alan CONSTABLE Born 1956 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

Alan Constable is renowned for his ceramic cameras: thirteen having been recently acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria. The collection, which he began developing in 2007, reflects his life-long fascination with old cameras, which started at the age of eight when he would make replicas from cardboard cereal boxes. Now, many years later, his colourful sculptures present lyrical interpretations of technical instruments. Constableâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finger marks can be seen clearly on the clay surface, leaving the mark of the maker as a lasting imprint. As a result, his cameras can be viewed as extensions of the body, as much as sculptural representations of an object.

Peter COOLEY Born 1956 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

The Blue Mountains environment coupled with that of the distinct imagery the artist recalls growing up in Tweed Heads form the basis of inspiration for Cooley’s current ceramic works. Each day the artist’s Tweed Heads school bus passed by Johnny Mussing’s zoo of concrete animals made from chicken wire and cement as well as rubber tyre sculptures / planters that dotted many Australian front yards in the 1950’s. These images were a cultural idiom of that time in Australia. These days, drawing distinctly upon the colours and textures of his now immediate environment, Leura, the artist uses both the 3D and 2D to communicate a unique image of Australia.

Mountains and Birds 3 2016 | earthenware | 75 x 56 x 41cm | $ 9000 Courtesy of the artist and Martin Browne Contemporary

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Alice COUTTOUPES Born 1989 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

Drawn to the physicality of working with clay, my practice requires constant experimentation and the final forms are carefully constructed and controlled sculptural works. Fascinated by the natural, the subject of my work is an exploration of the processes of colonial botany and their enduring socio-political and environmental implications. I am interested in ideas surrounding national memory, history and identity within the Australian context and how language and symbols work to shape and bond groups within societies. Most recently my work has been an investigation of the archetypal aesthetic of blue and white ceramics and the surrounding notions of tradition, authenticity, cultural globalisation, cultural exchange and appropriation, imperialism and ethnocentricsm.

Made in 2016 | porcelain, glaze | 39 x 39 x 7cm | $ 1400 Courtesy of the artist

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GREG DALY Born 1954 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

I stand outside my studio watching the light interact with the air, with the earth and with the life in between. I watch as the day advances and the light changes in hue and intensity, altering the depth and power of the landscape. It is during the pivotal moment between day and night, night and day, that all the majesty and grandeur of our world becomes heightened, more vivid, more present. This Kairos moment - a supreme moment, the pivotal point in the daily cycle that comes and goes, endlessly repeating and yet never the same - this is what I strive to capture.

Morning Light 2015 | earthenware, thrown, lustre glazes silver, bismuth | 21 x 18cm | $ 2800 Courtesy of the artist | Photo: John Daly

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Johanna DEMAINE Born 1948 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

In this work I explore the notion that the sublime is an extension of beauty while at the same time referencing my lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey. Mountain Madness explores my inner and outer space through the use of preciousness. I do this through the use of higher levels of skill, precious materials and contemporary technology whilst actively pushing all to their limits. The use of mountains in my work refers to higher states of mental development, understanding, awareness as well a challenge or obstacle to overcome. It is also a celebration of the landscape in which I live. The colours used further reinforce the notions of healing, wisdom, value, creativity, energy or power together with innocence and purity.

Mountain Madness 2015 | porcelain, lustre, gold, decals | 9.5 x 14 x 11cm | $ 900 Courtesy of the artist

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Jan DOWNES Born 1949 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

This artwork plays with the idea of function but is not functional. It subverts the medium and tools of painting, tubes of paint and brushes, by creating them in clay. Clay, the humble material of the earth, traditionally used to make vessels and other functional objects has been used to appropriate the painting process. The objects are fired, frozen in time, like the people and objects of Pompeii rendering them of no further function. Clay Play addresses the current liberation of ceramics from its craft history in which function was its purpose. It celebrates its entry into contemporary expression, art without borders defined by materiality.

Clay Play 2016 | porcelain, underglazes, oxides | 5 x 28 x 16cm | $ 740 Courtesy of the artist

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Lynda DRAPER Born 1962 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

My work explores psychological scenarios often representing a journey within the dualities of life and death, reality and fantasy, past and present. I am interested in the relationship between the mind and material, world and the related phenomenon of the metaphysical. Creating art is a way of attempting to bridge the gap between these worlds.

Green Eyes Pink Kisses 2015 | earthenware, glazes | 70 x 50 x 30cm | $ 2900 Courtesy of the artist

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Penny EVANS Born 1966 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

This Bowl depicts the Pleiades clustered in a circle with a snow flaky, frosty centre in the morning light of sunrise. The Pleiades women first appear in the Southern Hemisphere in the early hours of the morning, flamboyantly sweeping across the sky excreting frost. When camping in the Australian bush, you know that the Pleiades women have visited your camp overnight when you wake up with an extremely cold nose and the canvas of your swag covered in white icy crystals. Stories of the Seven Sisters spans thousands of years, linking sites and people across the continent. The Pleiades represent a unity of common purpose, shared knowledge and respect and recognition for all things physical and metaphysical. References: Johnson, D. 2011, Interpretations of the Pleiades in Australian Aboriginal astronomies, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, UTS, Sydney, pp. 291-297

Seven Sisters Morning Bowl 2015 | terracotta, underglazes, glaze | 20 x 55cm | $ 1500 Courtesy of the artist

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Neville FRENCH & Belinda FOX Born 1955 and 1975 Live and work in Victoria, Australia

This work was created in collaboration with Belinda Fox and encapsulates our sense of environmental fragility, hope and regeneration. The work has been fractured and restored to emphasize the breaks and augment the mark making and fragile nature of the piece.

Hua Ping IV 2015 | porcelain, thrown and altered, inlaid slips, kintsugi | 34 x 30 x 30cm | $ 4400 Courtesy of the artists | Photo: Christopher Sanders

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Trevor FRY Born 1958 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

When I started working in ceramics, I discovered a talent for hand building using the pre-historic coiling technique and went monumental, exploiting clayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other material propensity to be stacked high on itself in thin self-sustaining walls. I built crumbling installations to house my new ceramic gods, sexy, violent, earthy idols who really are bad. dead David is a decomposing classical figure, a precarious stopper atop a tall vessel. He has lost his arms and head, is covered in yellowish and bloody glazes, and a giant worm threads through the holes that riddle him. He represents a decayed ideal and the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential for personal expression.

dead David 2015 | porcelain, stoneware, coil built, low-fired glazes | 132 x 37 x 33cm | $ 8500 Courtesy of the artist

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Rachel GRIMSHAW Born 1967 Lives and works in the United Kingdom

My work is about the clay; it’s pliable, immediate qualities. Like a photograph capturing a ‘frozen moment’ this material when fired fixes forever a gesture, an impression, a moment. I work in heavily grogged stoneware which is coloured when wet using various percentages of body stains and oxides. The sculptural forms allude to the built environment but deliberately avoid explicit references. In pushing the material to its limits my wish is to explore three dimensional shapes while retaining a real sense of the qualities of clay. How the light interacts with a piece is an important factor in the presentation of the work. I fire in an electric kiln to 1285c

Torn 2015 | stoneware heavily grogged, black iron oxide, black body stain | 8 x 25 x 8cm | $ 750 Courtesy of the artist

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Stephanie HAMMILL Born 1969 Lives and works in Western Australia, Australia

I am exploring how fractures, breakages and repair influence our view of the object. I utilise traditional Japanese repair techniques using urushi lacquer (no expoxy or polymer products are used to repair). These repairs are then highlighted with gold powder or coloured lacquer. The seam is indistinguishable from the original ceramic piece. I make work specifically with the view of breaking it. I am moving the technique away from traditional repair and exploiting both the decorative and metaphorical language of Urushi lacquer and precious metals.

Fracture line 2016 | stoneware, thrown and altered, broken, repaired with urushi lacquer using hybrid tomo-tsugi technique | 28 x 15 x 15cm | $ 750 Courtesy of the artist page 23 / 30th GCICAA 2016

Ryan HANCOCK Born 1991 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

My work is engaged with humour, the interwebs and the wibbly wobbly world of ceramics.

Martin HARMAN Born 1986 Lives and works in the United Kingdom

I create unique and one-off sculpture to evoke curiosity and the imagination. My concerns cover aspects from space, time, shape-shifting forms and the suggestion of function. These ideas are generated from my research with the monument Stonehenge and the Built Environment around me. At a glance the work can appear architectural, on the other hand it shifts to become an unexpected surreal object as the eye is directed to investigate different parts of the form. The sculptures are made using singular geometric components thrown on the potterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wheel using traditional craft skills combined with hand-building techniques. I then apply colour and pattern to the surface through controlled multiple firings. This creates depth to which a glaze is then applied.

Wen-HSI HARMAN Born 1986 Lives and works in the United Kingdom

Wen-HSI Harmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work involves using fingerprints to reconstruct objects and express the notion of identity. She is a Taiwanese woman educated and working in Britain. Her studio practice provides a platform of freedom from which she can escape and review the tensions of living in the space between two cultures- symbolized by the eight -hour time difference between Britain and Taiwan.

Philip HART Born 1965 Lives and works in South Australia, Australia

This work is an exercise in ceramic craft. It comes from a batch of pots where I have explored the form, the making and the decoration of surface with a nod to historical references, celebrating Iconic images rendered amongst patterns, pop and painting.

James pot 2016 | ceramic, coil built, underglaze painting, mid fired | 45 x 21 x 21cm | $ 1400 Courtesy of the artist

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Steve HILTON Born 1960 Lives and works in the United States of America

As a geologist by training, I have developed an appreciation for the anomalies in the many forms of life, clay, rock, and soil covering the Earth’s landscape. I am intrigued by the way plants, animals and weather influence the Earth’s surface, by both erosional and depositional means. This fascination has become an integral part of my art. As I make art, I contemplate these iterations. Since these fragmented and geomorphic shapes are repeatedly subdivided into parts, each a smaller copy of the whole, I’m compelled to use self-similarity, iteration and subsequent textures which in turn allows me to interpret nature for the viewer and myself: hopefully with both of us seeing the natural world differently after spending time with my work.

Untitled Teapot #1012 2016 | stoneware with stain | 17 x 16 x 22cm | $ 625 Courtesy of the artist

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Ruth HOWARD Born 1968 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

Natural shapes, domestic and wild animals have always inspired Ruth Howard. She has been a regular studio artist at Arts Project Australia since 1998, and last year she had her first solo show at in the Arts Project Gallery. Howard has been included in numerous group exhibitions including Turning the Page, Gallery 101, Canada; Hybrid Making - new work from Australia, Canada and Scotland, Project Ability Gallery, Scotland; and Face-Up, Idiom Studio, New Zealand.

Yuxue JIANG Born 1993 Lives and works in the United Kingdom

Through experimenting with different materials, I attempt to solve my research question “How is clay used as a material to express an idea of metaphorical quality of skin?”. In the process I reflect upon “What is the similarity between skin and clay? What is the relationship between skin and clay? How can we use clay to express the potential of skin? How can I combine the similarities between skin and clay together to create works?”.

Skin 2016 | ceramic | 15 x 20 x 20cm | $ 270 Courtesy of the artist

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Wonjae JO Born 1989 Lives and works in South Korea

Small sharp pieces are repeated to create texture on the surface of the porcelain vessels. During this process, I examine carefully touching the surface like a poet reads intervals between words, lines and paragraphs. The completed work has a subtle and smooth glossy surface with a piece of polished surface to reveal itself elegantly depending on their texture and form.

white poem 2016 | porcelain | 23 x 85 x 23cm | $ 2820 Courtesy of the artist

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Kate JONES Born 1966 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

All here is a marker in an ongoing attempt by Kate Jones to sketch out her experience of the complexity of being in the world. The material objects are both intimate and at the same time open to interpretation. She combines painted surfaces and sculptural forms to create an ambiguity that questions assumptions about both genres, allowing the work to sit in a liminal space that affords a realm of possibility in which new ideas and relationships can occur.

All here 2016 | terracotta, slip, glaze | 50 x 25 x 30cm and 25 x 15 x 15cm | $ 4000 Courtesy of the artist

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Irianna KANELLOPOULOU Born 1975 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

Drawing inspiration from 18th century European porcelain, Busy Blue fuses the traditional with the modern and utilizes traditional techniques that are rapidly being lost through modernization. My practice is largely involved with the creation of individual ceramic forms that create a narrative and explore issues of identity, (dis)placement, unity and movement. I often utilize collected images and objects of our environment and culture to explore the persona and the emotional associations we create with our immediate environment and memories â&#x20AC;&#x201C; real and invented. I am interested in using the figure as a cultural object to project a narrative of surreal reality; a super reality.

Busy Blue 2015 | ceramic, glazes, multifired | 24 x 11 x 9cm | $ 2100 Courtesy of the artist

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Michaela KLOECKNER Born 1957 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

Mangroves are a unique part of our coastal landscape and play an important part in our ecosystem, providing nesting sites for hundreds of species of birds as well as protection for fish, crabs, oysters, sea sponges and many more. The intricate mesh of their partly submerged root system is visually exciting providing interesting connections, textures and repetition of lines.

Mangrovia 2016 | various clays, slipped sea sponges and birds nest, underglaze colours, copper lustre, copper carbonate 51 x 31 x 35cm | $ 990 Courtesy of the artist page 34 / 30th GCICAA 2016

Jack LADD Born 1990 Lives and works in South Australia, Australia

Holidays in the Sun examines our desire to remain separate from deeper concepts of ecology, cosmology and metaphysical interpretations of self. Set in paradise gone wrong it subverts our Australian notion of the idyllic beach getaway and brings attention to the ongoing and current debate over the implementation of a Global Nuclear Waste Facility in the South Australian outback.

Holidays in the Sun 2016 | stoneware, glaze, sand | 45 x 30 x 30cm | $ 5000 Courtesy of the artist

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Miranda LA FLEUR Born 1978 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

Iambic Poetry was made at Sundaymorning@ekwc, The Netherlands. It began as a sculptural exploration of the form of the vessel. I selected an alluring clay body that would provide visual strength in its organic, unglazed state so that I could make form paramount in the work. I became absorbed in investigating the spatial relationships and focused on ways to ‘tap out’ rhythms in the work’s composition with consideration given to spacing, contrast and repetition. As I progressed, my approach became more open, embracing the transformations and distortions that evolved in the drying and firing processes. In this way, Iambic Poetry is an intimate dialogue between, and expression of, the maker and the material itself.

Iambic Poetry 2016 | stoneware | 10.5 x 14.5 x 79cm | $ 1820 Courtesy of the artist

Amaya LANG Born 1988 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

The human insides have been mushed up and placed in a new external context to view and consume, placing the body into the realm of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Salty Raspberry Sauce is a parasitic and alien entity that we do not know from any real familiarity. It is a material investigation into the saccharine yet bitter reality and reflects our relationship to our bodies, heightening the paradoxical nature of bodily control.

Salty Raspberry Sauce (Detail) 2016 | ceramic, glaze, textiles, silicone, resin | 80 x 27 x 27cm | $ 625 Courtesy of the artist

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Vanessa LUCAS Born 1955 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

I have long admired things washed smooth by the sea and this admiration has informed much of my work. I have embellished the surfaces of vessels with textures, patterns and colours reminiscent of shells and stones. The inclusion of elements that echo aspects of the natural world in the design of my functional vessels can provoke an emotional response to everyday objects and evoke sensations beyond the immediate moment. Vitrified porcelain is extremely durable and has the ability to last for hundreds or even thousands of years. It is my hope that the pots I make will be used and appreciated for many years.

Stone Splash 2016 | porcelain, slip cast and hand detailed | 34 x 110 x 38cm | $ 3200 Courtesy of the artist

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Holly MACDONALD Born 1956 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

These two works are from the About Place series of sculptural vessels inspired by a six-month journey through the west of the United States last year. The artist sought to capture vivid but naturally fading impressions of a foreign landscape. She approached the ceramic object as a drawing surface using the vessel-form to hold abstracted imagery. The works take geographical features as their point of departure. They are coiled and pinched into forms that reflect observations of place and culture. Each vessel seeks to become a souvenir of a place that exists beyond its physical limits. This sense of place has no beginning, no end and no opposites. It is the sum of many places. It bewilders and inspires.

Pictured: About a mountain (or two) 2016 | terracotta, porcelain slip, underglaze, ceramic pencil | 14 x 22 x 23.5cm. $ 800 About Place I (Emerald Lake) 2015 - 16 | porcelain, porcelain slip, glaze, dry glaze, iron oxide, ceramic pencil | 13 x 30 x 23cm $ 800 | Courtesy of the artist page 39 / 30th GCICAA 2016

Kaye MCDONALD Born 1946 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

Kaye McDonald is a ceramicist who has a fascination with the functional form. She imbues a whimsical quality within these decorative ceramic works evoking a flamboyant, Baroque sensibility. Since 1988 McDonald has been attending the Arts Project Australia studio program and she exhibits annually in the Annual Gala exhibition at Arts Project Australia gallery. Her work has been selected for various group exhibitions at Arts Project Australia; C3 Gallery, Abbotsford; and at Melbourne Art Fair in 2008.

Untitled 2016 | earthenware, glaze | 20 x 19 x 16cm | $ 240 Courtesy of the artist and Arts Project Australia

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Marloe MORGAN Born 1985 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

Marloe Morgan is the Principle Ceramicist of a Design and Ceramic studio based in Currumbin, Australia. With a strong connection to clay and an eye for detail, her progression into bespoke tableware was one of natural progression. This work was created for award winning Chef Nelly Robinson of Nel in Sydney. These pieces belong to a body of work created for degustation style dining, designed to enhance the dining experience. Inspiration was taken from nature in the form of rocks while also considering how the forms would function during dining and service. The pieces are cast using stoneware slip, glazed and high fired.

degustation 2016 | slipcast stoneware, glaze | 45 x 60 x 30cm | $ 240 each or $ 1140 for collection Courtesy of the artist

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Anne MOSSMAN Born 1952 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

People who win awards usually get very ordinary, conservative cups as commemorations of their achievements. I wanted to make cups that would stand out as individually, as the people whose talents won them their awards.

Champions Cups (Detail) | coloured porcelain, gold lustre |12 x 45 x 30cm | $ 1200 Courtesy of the artist

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Sharon MUIR Born 1971 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

My current practice involves the selection of pre-existing mass produced ceramic objects that might be considered purely decorative or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;uselessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and incorporating them into unique hand built forms to produce a new object. The use of pre-existing ceramics objects brings with them a number of cultural, historical and stylistic considerations. I am particularly interested in notions of reminiscence and sentimentality that such objects evoke and how recontextualisation can alter their meaning and function. By using these objects in different ways I aim to highlight ideas about use, re-use, and the decorative and how an objects function and meaning can be manipulated.

Jeremy NICHOLS Born 1948 Lives and works in the United Kingdom

I make domestic pots specialising in teapots and other drinking and pouring vessels. Both the shapes of the pots and the way they are made owe much to my longstanding interest in aviation and the precision of engineered objects: I trained as an Aeronautical Engineering in the 1970s and the forms and structures of flight remain major influences. Working in a European modernist tradition I draw on ideas from a variety of ceramic cultures and periods, as well as contemporary architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to reconciling form and function. My aim in developing this work has been to create visually interesting designs that have the potential to stimulate the imagination, whilst compromising as little as possible on function and ergonomic efficiency.

Kirsten PERRY Born 1974 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

I love to investigate the relationship between elements of error, chance, anthropomorphism and humour. Traditionally, errors are discarded or covered up but I like to challenge this aesthetic by highlighting and exaggerating errors, especially through humour. Mould making is central to my ceramic practice. I enjoy the technical challenge of casting objects or textures not usually associated with ceramics. The texture of found objects or folded paper is what I used to cast a plaster mould. From there I press the clay into the mould. I am attracted to the natural earth colours of the clay. I like to mix different coloured clays and slice off veneered pieces to line a plaster mould (Agateware technique).

Good Enough Zebra vases 2016 | porcelain, agateware, glaze | 24 x 13 cm | $ 600 Courtesy of the artist

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Madeleine PRESTON Born 1968 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

Two years ago I undertook a residency at the Ceramic Design Studio at Sydney TAFE with Lynda Draper and began my journey in ceramics. Little Deaths explores the intersection of ceramics and its historical baggage. Is it form over function or function over form? Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know. The forms of Little Deaths function as ciphers, secret agents suggesting the small victories of life through their shape and surface. Handmade objects and forms allude to creation and dissolution and the lack of control we as humans have over either despite the agency we afford ourselves. Little Deaths are what we all experience and ultimately must come to terms with

Little Deaths 2016 | terracotta, augmented glaze with silicon carbide, ironstone slip, multiple firings | dimensions various $ 3600 | Courtesy of the artist | Photo: docqment

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Megan PULS Born 1950 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

Inspired by the natural landscape and particularly the extraordinary and ever-changing world of the wetlands, this work SILT is wheel thrown from Southern Ice Porcelain Scarva clay pierced and polished. Each cluster of vessels tells the story of different aspects of the wetlands, waves, ocean, crab, sand, tidal mangrove silt, miniscule ebbtide organic in shape - quite in nature. These vessels evoke the beauty and fragility of our complex ecosystem.

SILT 2016 | porcelain and stoneware | 60 x 30cm | $2500 Courtesy of the artist

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Gitta RADTKE Born 1962 Lives and works in Germany & the Netherlands

My method of working involves drawing upon the particularities of the material: the white, silky surface, the transparency and fragility of the porcelain. The surface of wood and the complex structure of a flower continue to inspire me and often feature in the form and decoration of my work.

Eloise RANKINE Born 1992 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

When we view ceramic objects, we become aware of our own bodies, we become aware of the fragility of the piece in front of us and the fragility of the ties that connect ourselves to others. My work explores these unspoken relationships in both their complexity and simplicity. The carved surfaces are inspired by my mother’s quilting patterns – a making process which invites long reflection upon my own personal relationships. I play with pushing porcelain to its limits – often past breaking point – in order to interrogate the (false) idea that beauty and perfection are interchangeable. In the same way that there can be strength and beauty in people who are struggling, damaged or fragile, my porcelain bottles remain strong and beautiful despite imposed imperfections.

Simon REECE Born 1960 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

Having chosen clay as my means of expression I find the clay directs my work process. Utilising the particular clayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s properties and exploring its limitations increasingly defines my work. These works are about climate change and the proliferation of jellyfish blooms in the warming oceans.....

Rachael RIGG Born 1956 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

Ceramic vessels have emerged anthropologically as female and over time the evolution of what it â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;meansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to be female has developed within the context of society values. My intention is to sabotage, subvert and challenge ingrained assumptions of what it means to be female by using ceramic vessels as a metaphor for female identity. By sabotaging my own domestic vessels I am challenging the innate idea that female means function, nourisher, food provider. It can mean these things but only through an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice, not because they are female. There is a deliberate residue of my hand in their making. I have tried to make this work aesthetic. Satire can be seductive and exist in quietude. Sabotage 2016 | white grog raku, high fire reduction, gas kiln | 30 x 50 x 100cm | $ 1900 Courtesy of the artist | Photo: Greg Piper

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Adrian SMITH Born 1987 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

#100daysofmugs was a project in response to the #100dayproject. The project explored the boundaries of process by pushing myself to create something new day in, day out. Inspiration was drawn from many sources, in particular my travels abroad to Turkey and Japan. Blue was the colour of choice for the project, an ode to the beautiful mosques, tiles and jewellery encountered through my travels. I also gained much of my inspiration from nature. These simple forms are reflected in the textures and shapes of the mugs I created. Each piece has explored the concept of form, function and shape, going beyond the boundaries of functionality and into the realm of abstract art.

#100daysofmugs (installation view, detail) 2016 | porcelain, blue slip | 160 x 160 x 15 cm | $ 7000 Courtesy of the artist

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Mark SMITH Born 1976 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

Mark Smith creates text-based and figurative work that aims to provoke contemplation and selfreflection in the viewer. His art practice is concerned with issues related to the human condition. Since 2007 Smith has attended the Arts Project Australia studio and had his first solo exhibition Words Areâ&#x20AC;Ś at Jarmbi Gallery Upstairs, Victoria. His work has featured in group exhibitions including Small Universe, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne; BSG Small Works Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy; and My Puppet, My Secret Self, The Substation, Newport. Two years ago, Smith self-published Alive, an auto-biographical reflection of his life.

Alexandra STANDEN Born 1988 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

We are witnessing a resurgence in hand made things and I think this is due to the growing presence of technologies in our life. The hand crafted quality reminds us of a human touch and thought that we otherwise lack in our tech convenient lives today. Golden Sound explores the possibilities of arrangement through a collection of related forms and examines ideas of ritual, ordinariness and contemplation. Through embracing the most primordial, ancient historical material: clay, I transform it into a vessel form, and extend the language to objects of containment and inner space. Sensation, feeling and thought are progressively different phases of our embodied relationship to objects and environments.

Golden Sound 2016 | terracotta, metallic glaze | 3 pieces, largest height 64cm | $ 3500 Courtesy of the artist

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Mark THOMPSON Born 1949 Lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

As a theatre practitioner painter and ceramics maker, fields of research and discovery are as serendipitous as life. A curiosity for the strange and bizarre coupled with a need to examine and explain the human condition leads one into the realm of the extraordinary. Recent events in this world demand some kind of contextualisation and the scattered symbols are signifiers of a world view. My professional production design practice, amalgamated with investigations into theatre and costume design, historical art practice and social comment, has led to several areas of creative investigation. These all inform current works based on identifiable iconography, both international and Australian in origin.

ALAYAN, 2016 | ceramic, gold lustre, decals | 115 x 50 x 27cm | $ 10000 Courtesy of the artist

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Dawn VACHON Born 1979 Lives and works in Victoria, Australia

A subversion of the standard ceramic processes has been the basis of investigation - intentional explosions, melting clay, building with raw materials and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;tic-tac-ingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; among other methods. The work is then augmented and arranged in an attempt to find harmony among disparate parts, to allow the supporting cast to alter ones perception of the weightiest form, and to question the usage of guise or facade.

Beard and Tie 2016 | clay, glaze, copper wire, solder (lead free) | 15 x 18 x 40cm | $500 Courtesy of the artist | Photo: PC Sachiko Mardon

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Larissa WARREN Born 1978 Lives and works in Queensland, Australia

In flux is an exploration of the delicacy of interfamilial cohesion. My work is informed by a heritage of family matriarchal art workers. Family homes were filled with mid-century Australian earth dense pottery. Solid sculptures of Trojan horses and bloated birds delighted me as a child, yet I cringed when meals were served on chunky, rough plates; devoid of whites and bright colour. My exploration of porcelain is relatively new. I love its purity and sensitivity to being fused with heavily grogged stoneware clays. My childhood memories are bound together by the translucent and resonant medium. It swirls through, enmeshed like DNA. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to control the contrasting clays, but I like how the smooth medium holds and attempts to reframe history.

In flux 2016 | porcelain, stoneware, stains, salvaged wood | 6.5 x 92cm | $ 300 each Courtesy of the artist

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2014 Winner

Artist Vipoo Srivilasa explores contemporary social, political and ethical concerns in his work. He also draws upon his experience living between two homes: Australia and Thailand. Srivilasa has had solo exhibitions in Australia, Thailand and China; featured in international exhibitions including Impressed: Contemporary Australian Ceramics, New Delhi; Jakarta Contemporary Ceramic Biennale, Indonesia;Modern Masters, Germany; Ceramic Annual of America and more locally the Bravura: 21st Century Australian Craft exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia and Fierce and Friendly at the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery. In addition to exhibiting, Srivilasa is actively involved in cultural exchange projects aimed at creating opportunities between ceramicists internationally. In 2012 he was elected a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. Here he chats with Assistant Curator Emma Collerton.

Image: Vipoo Srivilasa, Battle of old and new power 2012, porcelain. Gold Coast City Gallery Collection Image Courtesy of the artist and Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane page 58 / 30th GCICAA 2016

Q&A with Vipoo SRIVILASA Emma Collerton: Congratulations on winning the 29th Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award. I noticed you have been a finalist in several art prizes including most recently 2016 Fleurieu Art Prize and 2016 Basil Sellers Art Prize. What role do art prizes have in an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s practice? Vipoo Srivilasa: I cannot speak for all artists but for me, art prizes helps me understand where my work sits in the contemporary art world, validates my practice, encourages me to think big and beyond my comfort zone, opens up professional development opportunities and most importantly it will help extend my little artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life a bit longer ... if I won! EC: How have you benefited from winning the Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award? How did you use your prize money? VS: My work gets exposed to larger group of audience both national and international through the announcement of winning the award. This directly and indirectly led to many professional opportunities including an invitation to be part of the 15 Artists Exhibition at Redcliffe Art Gallery, Queensland. The prize money enabled me to acquire a nice and shiny new kiln and a delicious Thai dinner! EC: Your winning artwork Battle of old and new power was created using white porcelain. What inspired you to work with the ceramic medium, in particularly porcelain? VS: I like the beautiful white colour of porcelain and it felt good to touch. EC: On your website you state that your development as a professional artist began when you moved to Australia in 1997 to pursue post-graduate studies at the University of Tasmania. Prior to moving to Australia you undertook Bachelor of Art (ceramic) at Rangsit University in Thailand. How did the teaching vary and what did you gain the most from your studies? VS: Oh, it has been a long time since I studied! I try to remember the difference. I think I acquired most of my art foundation skill from Thailand and learned to develop ideas and concept in Australia. The benefit of study is you can try and experiment without the pressure of public failure! You also have a luxury of asking for critical advice and suggestions from your teacher. It gets a bit harder to get honest critical comment when you become a professional artist. EC: The 2014 Guest Judge Dr Patsy Hely noted that you made Battle of old and new page 59 / 30th GCICAA 2016

power ‘in response to the political upheavals taking place in Thailand over the last few years but the work might have more personal readings also… At this particular moment in history though, it has resonance not just with one country’s internal battles but with the pulls and pushes of global relations and power struggles more broadly.’ Would you agree? Could you tell us the symbolism/ concept behind Battle of old and new power? VS: Buffaloes have always played an integral part in Thai culture and Thai society. The worst insult in Thai language is to be called “Buffalo” as this animal is seen as slow, stupid and stubborn. Battle of old and new power is my response to Bangkok Red Shirt (new power) and Yellow Shirt (old power) protests and fights in recent years.

Image: A young girl viewing Battle of old and new power at the exhibition opening 2012. Photo: Yoko Lance page 60 / 30th GCICAA 2016

EC: What advice would you give an aspiring ceramic artist? VS: It is important to remember that there is no one way to build an art career. There are a lot of different ways depending on what you want to achieve. Here are some tips and suggestions from me. They come as I can think of them so they are not in order. 1.

Set up your goals, what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it.

2. Get regular reviews on your work from you peers â&#x20AC;Ś with an open mind. 3. Maintain and keep your support material up to date, such as CV, images of your work and images list. 4. Make sure you have great images of your work. Invest in a photographer if you can. 5. Thank people who help you. 6. Get out and network like crazy. Sometimes things happen because of who you know! 7. Set up a website to showcase your work. Often when a gallery or curator shows interests in your work, they go online and do a search. Also make sure your website is up to date. 8. Volunteer to be an assistant for the artist you admired. This will give you invaluable access to mentorship as well as build a friendship with the artist. 9. I believe that artists, apart from making good art, need to have a combination of skills to be successful. Having a business skill and mind set help a lot. You will have to deal with bookkeeping, tax return and maybe GST. Being equipped with these skills will make life easier. 10. Go to art openings, make friends with other artists, chat with gallery owners and check out the artworks. 11. Be on time and keep your word, especially when dealing with the press, curators and gallery. 12. Enter art competitions 13. Prepare for rejections, you will get them! Maybe a lot of them. 14. Practice writing. It will become helpful when you write your bio, artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement and grant applications! 15. Know your art industry, be a part of it. This will help you understand how the industry works. 16. Get on social networks. Instagram is a good start. This way you see more art without leaving your home and it is a great way to follow your artist heroes and learn from them. page 61 / 30th GCICAA 2016

PAST WINNERS

1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

WINNER Gwyn Hanssen Pigott (Australia) Yvonne Harrison (Australia) Graham Oldroyd (Australia) Arthur Rosser (Australia) Johanna de Maine (Australia) Warren Palmer (Australia) Robyn Killin-McAuliffe (Australia) David Oswald (Australia) Owen Rye (Australia) Stephen Benwell (Australia) Stephen Bowers (Australia) Jeff Mincham, AM (Australia) Dr Patsy Hely (Australia) Gwyn Hanssen Pigott (Australia) Susan Condron (Australia) Alan Peascod (Australia) Lynda Draper (Australia) Hideaki Suzuki (Australia) Elina Brandt-Hansen (Norway) Werna Nowka (Germany) Florence Rometsch (Switzerland) Han Tian Ren (China) Award withheld Michael Keighery (Australia) Merran Esson (Australia) Dr Julie Bartholomew (Australia) Simcha Even-Chen (Israel) Peter Cooley (Australia) Leisa Russell (Australia) Vipoo Srivilasa (Australia)

JUDGE Andrew Halford Janet Mansfield, OAM Carl McConnell Glenn R Cooke Graham Oldroyd Tim Jacobs Joan Campbell, MBE Alan Peascod Gwyn Hanssen Pigott Peter Timms Les Blakeborough Greg Daly Len Castle, DCNZM, CBE Janet Mansfield, OAM Andrea Hylands Mitsuo Shoji Jeff Mincham, AM Janet de Boos Garry Bish Greg Daly Michael Keighery Richard Parker Ted Secombe Grace Cochrane Noel Frankham Marea Gazzard, OA, CBE Stephen Benwell Kevin Murray Dr Patsy Hely

4. 5.

10.

CERAMICS FROM THE COLLECTION 1.

JOINT WINNER 1ST GOLD COAST CERAMIC AWARD [SCULPTURE] 1982. Yvonne Harrison, Inner communications 1982, ceramic. Purchased with the assistance of the Craft Board of the Australia Council. 1983.01

2. WINNER 8TH GOLD COAST CERAMIC ART AWARD 1989. Owen Rye, Wood fired form 1989, stoneware, shino glaze. 1989.47 3. WINNER 9TH GOLD COAST CERAMIC ART AWARD 1990. Stephen Benwell, Large vase 1989, hand built stoneware, body stains, ferro glaze. 1990.69 4. WINNER 10TH GOLD COAST CERAMIC ART AWARD 1991. Stephen Bowers, Citrus decorated bowl 1991, wheel thrown earthenware, underglaze decoration, clear glaze. 1991.32 5. WINNER 13TH GOLD COAST CERAMIC ART AWARD 1994. Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Still life with two cups 1994, woodfired stoneware. 1994.43 6. WINNER 20TH GOLD COAST INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART AWARD 2001 . Florence Rometsch, Paperlike 2 2001, hand built, (Scarva) earthstone with white glaze, fired to 960°C and 1250°C. 2001.212 7.

WINNER 24TH GOLD COAST INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART AWARD 2005. Merran Esson, Corrugated Bucket 2005, slab stoneware, dry glaze and engobes. Fired to 1220. 2005.142

8. WINNER 25TH GOLD COAST INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART AWARD 2006. Julie Bartholomew, I am Louis Vuitton, I am Manolo, I am Coco 2006, porcelain. 2006.86a-e 9. WINNER 11TH GOLD COAST CERAMIC ART AWARD 1992. Jeff Mincham, Ceremonial vessel 1992, wheel thrown extruded clay, fumed raku. 1992.33 10. WINNER 27TH GOLD COAST INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART AWARD 2010. Peter Cooley, Tree with busted guts and galahs 2009, earthenware with underglazes and engobe decoration. 2010.56.

Published by Gold Coast City Gallery on the occasion of the 30th Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award. 27 August – 23 October 2016

© Gold Coast City Gallery © All artworks the artists All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without the permission of the publisher. Publication Design and Printing, George Chapman - 3e Innovative Gallery Staff: Tracy Cooper-Lavery, Stephen Baxter, Alexander Boyes, Dean Cogle, Emma Collerton, Jen Gyles, Jason Haggerty, Sarah Lewis, Eileen Patrick, Virginia Rigney, Ian Tremewen, Mark Warne, Sally Wright. 978-0-9953694-0-5 Gold Coast City Gallery 135 Bundall Rd, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217

GOLD COAST CITY GALLERY ISBN: 978-0-9953694-0-5