2024 biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards

18 October 2024 – 16 February 2025 Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

Published on the occasion of

NORTH QUEENSLAND ceramic

awards

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

18 October 2024 – 16 February 2025

Publisher

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville City Galleries

Townsville City Council

PO Box 1268

Townsville City, Queensland, 4810

Australia

galleries@townsville.qld.gov.au

© Galleries, Townsville City Council, and respective artists and authors, 2024

ISBN: 978-0-949461-65-0

Publication design

Tara Henderson

Publication editor

Evie Franzidis

Organised by

Townsville City Galleries

Publisher note

The dimensions of artworks (height x width x depth in cm) are based on the information provided to the Galleries team by the artists. Any omissions are due to a lack of information available at the time of printing.

Front cover

Steven Carson

Maybe It’s There # 1 2024

Image courtesy the artist

Back cover

Steph Wallace Eruption Grouping 2024 Image courtesy the artist

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

Cnr Denham and Flinders St

Townsville QLD 4810

Tue–Fri 10am – 5pm

Sat–Sun 10am – 1pm

(07) 4727 9011

galleries@townsville.qld.gov.au

whatson.townsville.qld.gov.au

Townsville City Galleries

TownsvilleCityGalleries

Galleries Team

Holly Arden Galleries Director

Jo Lankester Senior Exhibitions and Collections Officer

Veerle Janssens Collection Management Officer

Michael Favot Exhibitions Officer

Zoe Seitis Exhibitions Assistant

Chloe Lausen Curatorial Assistant

Rachel Cunningham Senior Education and Programs Officer

Jonathan Brown Education and Programs Officer

Ashleigh Peters Education and Programs Officer

Tanya Tanner Senior Public Art Officer

Rhiannon Mitchard Public Art Officer

Maddie Bleakley Customer Service Officer

Crysania Gadd

Saraima Batt

Taylor Sopronick

Karla Destéfani

Deanna Nash

Sue Drummond

Emma Hanson

Customer Service Officer

Customer Service Officer

Gallery Assistant

Gallery Assistant

Team Leader Business Support

Business Support Officer

Business Support Officer

Rachael Devescovi Business Support Officer

Sponsors

Presenting Partners

Acknowledgements

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.

FOREWORD

Welcome to the 2024 North Queensland Ceramic Awards, a proud collaboration between Perc Tucker Regional Gallery (Townsville City Council) and the North Queensland Potters Association Inc. This biennial ceramic competition and exhibition has a rich history dating back to 1973. It is known for attracting the best of early career and established ceramic artists from around Australia who continue to push the boundaries of the medium.

The City of Townsville is nationally renowned for its ceramics collection, and the gallery sits at the centre of a strong history of practice in North Queensland. The winner of this year’s Ceramic Award will become part of the City’s remarkable public collection.

This year, we received a record 180 entries, and have 84 finalists. We thank every one of our entrants; judging is always a challenging task.

We are sincerely grateful for the expertise of our 2024 selection panel: Lauren Turton, Louise Watson and David Ray. Our overall judge for the 2024 awards, Jann Kesby, is a renowned ceramic artist and educator. With an active studio practice and passion for nurturing artists, Jann is expertly placed as the 2024 judge.

We also extend our deep gratitude to those who have contributed to the success of this year’s Awards, including our generous award sponsors: EMU Sportswear, the Rainford Family, and the Jackson Family. This year’s Jackson Family Award is presented in memory of Graham and Betty Jackson, who have been steadfast supporters of the awards since 2000. We are honoured to continue their legacy.

Finally, we would like to congratulate the finalists for their outstanding achievements. Thank you for being part of the 2024 North Queensland Ceramic Awards.

Townsville City Galleries

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 and as collectors of ceramics.

In memory of Graham and Betty Jackson. The Jackson Family 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.

SELECTION PANEL MEMBERS

Lauren Turton

Lauren Turton is an Australian curator specialising in contemporary Australian art from 1970 to the present. She is interested in socially engaged arts practice, particularly the intersection of locality, place and identity themes. She is the curator at Artspace Mackay, and in 2023 presented the major ceramic retrospective Fire and Ash: The Woodfire Pottery of Arthur and Carol Rosser. She is a current board member of Crossroad Arts, all-abilities multi-arts organisation.

Lauren has a Master of Art Administration (Curating and Cultural Leadership), with a focus on regional arts programming. Having grown up in a regional area, one of Lauren’s key career goals is to strengthen cultural communities and to ensure galleries are accessible for all audiences throughout Australia.

Louise Watson

Louise Watson has been passionate about pottery for over 30 years, starting pottery classes in 1986 with a TAFE certificate in Art Studies – Ceramics and a Certificate of Art and Design in 1999. Throughout her moves, she has always connected with the local pottery community, joining the North Queensland Potters Association (NQPA) in 2014. A dedicated member, Louise has served on the NQPA committee for a decade, including as President. Currently, she teaches a class at NQPA, where she enjoys sharing ideas and contributing to the pottery community in Townsville.

SELECTION PANEL MEMBERS

David Ray

David Ray is a contemporary ceramic artist, working and living in the Yarra Valley, on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people in Victoria. Over his 30year career, he has established himself as one of Australia’s leading ceramic artists. His ceramics have built a reputation for being wild and flamboyant Baroque creations that incorporate an abundance of colours, textures and decals onto handcrafted vessels. David’s art offers a wry commentary on contemporary consumerism and the less-celebrated aspects of Australian cultural life.

David explores the products of 18thcentury ceramic manufacturers, including Wedgwood, Spode and Sèvres, as representations of conspicuous consumption. The notions of display

and privilege inherent in these objects inform his work, which questions the role of ceramics in society as both utilitarian objects and as symbols of wealth and status. His work subverts classical forms with contemporary concerns and often explores the complex relationship between beauty and ugliness. The ‘hand of the maker’ is an idealistic notion he holds dear within his making process and is always distinctive within his work through the intentional contrast between the consistency and refinement of manufactured porcelain with his irregular, hand-moulded shapes.

David’s artwork is held in numerous Australian and international collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Clay Studio

Philadelphia, University of Queensland Museum of Art, and Victoria College of the Arts Margaret Lawrence Australian Ceramics Collection. He has been the recipient of numerous art awards, including Winner of Excellence Award at the Victorian Craft Awards (2019); Manningham Victorian Ceramic Art Prize (2017); and was a finalist in the Basil Sellers Award in 2016 and 2010.

JUDGE

Jann Kesby

Jann Kesby’s hands-on training began in a production workshop on the outskirts of Sydney during the 1970s. This was followed by a traineeship at Sturt Craft Workshops, Mittagong, which was the first production workshop established in Australia. It was here that she was introduced to woodfiring with Janet Mansfield. Following her traineeship, Jann moved back to the mid north coast NSW, where she established her own workshop just outside of Kempsey. For over 40 years, she has contributed to the arts more broadly as a teacher at the local TAFE and schools, as well as managing Dunghutti Ngaku Aboriginal Art Gallery from 2009 to 2018.

Jann has built several kilns over the years. First was a phoenix fast fire kiln, inspired by her time in Mittagong. But this kiln wasn’t to last, as it was designed for firing with pine. Given the large quantities of accessible, locally fallen hardwood in the area, she embraced a new firing method in the bourry box kiln, built in 1984 with a double firebox. The bourry lasted over 100 firings, and was replaced with Asha the catenary arch in 2018, which can be fired in 24–30 hours.

In 2006, Jann attended a residency in Tokoname, Japan, which renewed her inspiration and energy for different methods of firing. Upon her return, she constructed a Japanese kiln called an anagama, which is still in use today. The anagama is fired for 100+ hours. Jann states “I enjoy firing both Asha, the catenary arch, and Minkie, my anagama, each year in an endeavour to explore the vast variety of wood-fired effects.”

FINALISTS

Kelly AUSTIN

Stilled Composition 118 2022

Stoneware, porcelain, glaze, collected earthen materials, wire, timber, acrylic paint

Calcium matte glaze and flux

45 x 90 x 32 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Peter Whyte

About the artwork

This work explores composition and harmony, bringing several different components together to materialise ideas of complex unity and resonance. Crafted ceramic objects are arranged within a spatial field defined by a painted timber frame. The scene of archetypal wheel-thrown ceramics is interrupted with a change of axis, enclosure and a draping, central abstract gesture of surrender. This sculptural mingling brings attention to different kinds of knowing, associations, and perceptions. Gritty, dry earthen surfaces—with their reference to geological process and landscape—sit comfortably alongside the spaciousness and refinement of white porcelain.

About the artist

Kelly Austin is a ceramic and mixed media artist living in Lutruwita/Tasmania. She completed a Bachelor of General Fine Arts from the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada (2011), a Master of Philosophy from Australian National University, Canberra (2016), and is a current PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania.

Austin’s work has been exhibited in exhibitions across Australia, Canada and the United States. She has been a finalist in numerous art prize exhibitions, including Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney (2022); the Women’s Art Prize, Tasmania (2024); and The National Still Life Prize, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery (2019, winner). Kelly has been selected for artist residencies globally, including Medalta International Ceramic Residency, Canada; Bundanon Artist Residency, NSW; and The Royal Danish Academy, Denmark.

Her work is held in the National Gallery of Australia, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, among others.

Noel BRADY

Gaza Gathering 2024

Walkers 103 white stoneware

Sealed acrylic finish

20 x 32 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

We see images of refugee camps or settlements on our television screens on a daily basis. They are usually makeshift shelters or roughly assembled tents, crammed together in a random grid of poverty and misery.

Like a drone circling above the gathering, the viewer can move around this sculptural ceramic, and take in the claustrophobic collection of these makeshift shelters, empathising with the hundreds of displaced residents and their desperate situation.

About the artist

Artist and tutor Noel Brady lives and works in his bush studio near Emu Park, Central Queensland. He completed a Diploma of Art and Design in Ballarat, Victoria, and a teaching degree in Naarm/Melbourne. After teaching art for more than 30 years in regional high schools in Victoria and Queensland, he retired in 2004 and began concentrating on his own artwork. Initially focusing on sculpture, carving wooden musical instruments, and wooden wall reliefs using re-assembled piano parts, bric-a-brac and found objects, Noel also works with ceramics, watercolour, photography, and graphics. He is currently working on hand-built sculptural ceramics and experimenting with alternative firing methods.

Noel’s concept of a see-through glass panel features prominently along the walkway of the acclaimed Emu Park ANZAC Commemorative Precinct. His work is represented in the permanent collection of the Rockhampton Museum of Art and is held in many private collections throughout Queensland and Australia.

Steven CARSON

Maybe It’s There # 1 2024 Midfire earthenware

White-glazed interior, painted underglaze exterior

39.5 x 72.5 x 30.5 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

My works visualise transient or overlooked signs of human presence, responding to notions of time and place within the urban environment.

I create imagery that suggests traces of impact and abrasion; for example, graffiti tags, torn posters and paste-ups, scratches, scrawls and other marks that are written upon and ground into the surfaces of my surroundings. These become the motifs I apply to roughly cast forms that retain the seams of the moulds and untrimmed, excess clay. Overlaying the hard-edge graphic imagery references the layered surfaces of the urban environment. Clay drips and dribbles resulting from my unrefined casting process serve as an analogy for the accumulation of paint, glue, and other visual and fluid excesses of the street, and the at-times overwhelming experiences of ordinary life.

Through these works, I seek to magnify or amplify inconspicuous traces of impact as un-picturesque yet genuine depictions of my local environment.

About the artist

Steven Carson has exhibited ceramics, sculpture and image-based artworks since 1987. He holds a PhD from the University of Tasmania (2016), and a Master of Visual Arts from Queensland College of Art (1997). Carson currently lectures in Art at the University of Tasmania.

Major prizes he has received include the Whyalla Art Prize (2007); the Helpmann Academy Artist in Residence, Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India (2005); and the Moorilla Prize, City of Hobart Art Prize (1999).

In 2019 Carson completed a Studio Residency at Cité International des Arts, Paris, as recipient of Marie Edwards Travelling Scholarship. This culminated in two solo exhibitions, Vis-à-vis at Rosny Barn (2020) and Unrest at Moonah Arts Centre (2021), both in Tasmania.

Other recent solo exhibitions include Some Wear (2023) Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, and Maybe It’s There (2024), Schoolhouse Gallery, Rosny, Tasmania.

His work is held in collections, including Artbank, Royal Hobart Hospital, Queensland Children’s Hospital, State Library of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich and Toowoomba Regional Galleries.

Mandy CHEN

Mycelium Unearthed 2023

Porcelain

Unglazed

31 x 33 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Driven by the silent power of mycelium, I sculpt nature’s hidden orchestra. Each strand I mould— delicate as cobwebs yet strong as roots—embodies the intricate network beneath our feet, silently nourishing the earth with its delicate touch. My art is a tribute, a whispered song that calls us to witness the unseen conductor sustaining our fragile ecosystems. It urges us to listen to the silent symphony unfolding at our feet.

About the artist

Ceramic artist Mandy Chen bridges cultures of different places—namely, Taiwan, Australia, and Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). Her artistic journey reflects her personal journey. Finding solace in art, her passion for expression has blossomed. Living with the Quandamooka people on Minjerribah, she found their profound respect for the environment deeply resonated with her. Inspired, she chose ceramics, the earth itself, as her medium.

Mandy’s art is a voice for the voiceless—the ocean, its marine life, and our fragile planet. Her works highlight the environmental crisis while honouring her artistic ancestors. Each piece invites exploration: a confluence of cultures, past and present, East and West. It’s a continuous cycle of observation, expression, and selfdiscovery. Mandy’s art is a powerful testament to using creativity as a voice for change.

Mandy CHEN

Mind Bubbles in the Coral Reef 2024

Porcelain

Unglazed

40 x 25 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Mind Bubbles in the Coral Reef encapsulates the complexities of the current condition by blending the imaginative vibrancy of AI-generated colours with the tangible reality of bleached coral, a poignant symbol of environmental degradation. This juxtaposition highlights the concerns and fears surrounding our changing world and the environmental challenges we face.

This artwork contributes to the ongoing narrative of human condition and cultural identity, showcasing the transformative power of art to express personal values and social issues. It invites viewers to reflect on their own perceptions of reality and imagination.

By exploring the delicate balance between dreamscapes and reality, this piece embodies the quest for what is true and real, urging viewers to consider how they are seen, heard, and understood in a rapidly changing world.

Zara COLLINS

She Always Hated Cold Feet 2022

Egyptian paste (including recycled glazes, paper and porcelain slip) fired to 1200 °C

Unglazed

9 x 19 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

She Always Hated Cold Feet is part of a larger investigation into memory, the trace and relationships between people and objects. Through my creative practice, I seek to evoke forgotten moments, bittersweet recollections, and a longing for the past. By delving into the interplay between sensory perception, memory, and imagination, my work aims to bridge the past and the present. It invites viewers to engage with their own personal narratives, prompting them on a journey of reflection and introspection, and providing a renewed appreciation for the beauty of forgotten memories.

About the artist

Zara is completing a Master of Fine Arts at National Art School, Sydney, and holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University. She has been a finalist in numerous international award exhibitions, including Talente, Munich, Germany; Young Glass at the Ebbeltoft Museum, Denmark; and the Japanese Jewellery Competition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan. She has held eight solo exhibitions, multiple group exhibitions, and been a finalist in numerous Australian art awards, including the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, Hobart Art Prize, and Gold Coast International Ceramic Award. Zara has been awarded an Ian Potter Foundation Cultural Grant, and has continued to expand her practice through residencies, including the Australia–China Council Residency in Beijing, China; Bundanon Artist Residency, NSW; Goulburn Regional Art Gallery Artist Residency, NSW; Wollongong Creative Spaces Residency, NSW; and the NSW Ministry for the Arts’ six-month residency at the Gunnery.

Zara COLLINS

Aide-Memoire 2023

Midfire porcelain and reclaimed stoneware, paper pulp, human hair

Unglazed

2 x 15 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

My current investigation into humble domestic objects, personal clothing and textile items of the home is part of a larger body of work titled ‘Sensing Lost Memories’, where I investigate sensorial memory, haptic memory, and the ephemeral play of childhood. My research draws heavily from Winnicott’s theory of transitional objects, objects as memory holders, and the relationship between people and objects.

Aide-Memoire is part of a larger investigation into memory, the trace and material culture of the domestic space. I highlight the forgotten, functional items we use every day. Through my creative practice, I delve into the ‘stories’ of these humble objects and the trace we leave on them. Lost single socks, bras losing their underwires, and worn-out knees in jeans. These stains, loose threads, hair, and marks become the physical trace of our lives with objects. Focusing on the seemingly small insignificant details invites introspection, reflection and appreciation for the simple things in life.

Len COOK

Blossom Jar 2022

Local clay stoneware

Naturally deposited wood ash decoration

19 x 25 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

The pot shown is based on a Japanese blossom jar, fired on its side using local fire clays wadding. It was fired in my anagama for five days using locally grown Caribbean pine. I found a clay deposit about 500 metres away from where I source my wood. I like the idea of making work that is closely related—such as clay and wood—as this makes the ware truly unique.

About the artist

Len Cook has been making ceramics professionally since 1979. A devoted wood-firing potter, he fires his anagama once a year. Len’s formal studies in ceramics were conducted at the Monash University in Gippsland, where he was tutored by Owen Rye. His work is represented in regional and private collections and galleries throughout Australia. His travels to Japan on numerous occasions have influenced the direction of his ceramics.

Margaret CRAWFORD

Pandanus view 2024

Stoneware clay

Slips, underglazes and glazes

24 x 13 x 13 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

The pandanus is an iconic plant, native to Australia, well recognised and bountiful along our North Queensland coastline. It is a beautiful, if unruly, tropical plant. The images portrayed on my vase are stylised forms of their prickly leaves hanging in skirts, the contrasting bright colourful orange seed pod and its ringed scarred trunk. All these contribute to my view of the pandanus.

About the artist

Margaret Crawford became involved in Townsville’s visual arts scene in 1998. After gaining a Diploma of Visual Arts in 2007, majoring in painting, she gravitated to printmaking and ceramics. She states that “Ceramics brings together all my artist instincts as I find clay a perfect canvas to express myself.”

Her work is primarily inspired by North Queensland environs. Awards include Overall Winner (Ceramic), Townsville Arts Society (TAS) (2021); 3D Winner (Ceramic), TAS (2020); and 3D Winner (Ceramic), TAS (2019). Her work is held in collections such as James Cook University, Townsville University Hospital, and Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE.

Johanna DE MAINE and Tatsuya TSUTSUI

Ma: The Space in Between 2024

Amakusa porcelain

Eggshell/satin matte

37 x 33 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This piece is the product of a collaboration with my partner Tatsuya Tsutsui. He made the form, and I then worked on the surface.

The Japanese concept of ma has been described as a pause in time, an interval or emptiness in space. Ma is the time and space that life needs to breath, to feel and connect. If we have no time, if our space is restricted; we cannot grow. This universal principle applies to every aspect of life.

Ma: The Space in Between explores the space between the collaged layers. Each layer adds another dimension as well as an integration or blending between the layers as in life. At the same time, I am exploring the space between Japanese and Western cultures, as my partner and I live and work between Japan and Australia. This piece was made in our studio in Japan.

About the artist

Queensland-born artist Johanna DeMaine commenced potting in 1971. Since then, she has had in excess of 40 solo exhibitions, participated in 200-odd 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.

Johanna’s work is held in collections of HRH Queen Elizabeth II of England, Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark, and the Governor General of Australia.

Her partner and frequent collaborator, master porcelain artist Tatsuya Tsutsui gravitated to ceramics after completing a degree in oil painting at Musashino Art University, Tokyo. The two work between studios based in Merigandan West, Toowoomba, Qld; and Morai, Kyushu, Japan.

Lorraine DEAN

Bloom 2024

Porcelain/midfire lumina

Unglazed

26 x 20 x 19 cm approx. each Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

In creating a process that fuses delicate layers and folds of porcelain and fabric, I amplify the connections we share, echoing emotions, relationships, and our journey’s experiences. Through porcelain’s vulnerability and strength, I explore the delicate balance between fragility and resilience, inviting introspection and connection, not just personally but within our environment.

About the artist

As an emerging ceramic artist, Lorraine Dean’s journey is one of self-discovery and introspection, guided by the tactile essence of clay. She relentlessly challenges its properties, pushing boundaries to sculpt vessels from within. Developing a process that explores vulnerability and strength, she reflects the layers that define us, and the human condition. After graduating from Lismore TAFE in 2023, Lorraine was invited to participate in Beyond the Brush, a NSW TAFE exhibition at Parliament House, Sydney. She was awarded “Best emerging artist” for North Coast Ceramics Inaugural Award 2024, which led to a solo exhibition at Makers Gallery Australia (Brisbane) in May 2024, as well as being selected as a finalist in both Muswellbrook and Ravenswood Art Prizes in NSW.

Tony DI GIACOMO

Golden Dream 2024

Porcelain

Crystalline glaze with gold lustre

29 x 16 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

I enjoy making pieces with curves on the pottery wheel. Getting the curves right can make a piece so appealing to the eye. Golden Dream uses porcelain clay to ensure that its curves remain one of its principal attributes. Trimming the piece is also an important aspect of making the piece, as it finalises its shape.

Glaze can enhance a piece or send it to the bin. The crystalline glaze used works well with the 12-carat gold lustre on the top. The glaze uses ilmenite and rutile to colour the crystals and background, and their contrast is complementary.

This piece has been fired to cone 10 (approximately 1275°C) and the temperature held between 1050°C and 1110°C for three hours, allowing the crystals to form. The piece is refired to 750°C to finalise the lustre application.

About the artist

Pottery was always a hobby for Tony Di Giacomo since he made his first piece in 1980 at university. However, since retiring from his full-time teaching job in 2016, he found more time for pottery and now it is no longer a hobby, but a passion.

The artist states:

I strive to constantly improve my throwing skills and exclusively use crystalline glazes to complete my work. Mastering crystalline glazes has been challenging, but the results achieved with these glazes can be spectacular and unique to every piece. The crystals that grow in the glaze emulate the many miracles that happen in nature, like snowflakes that grow from a dust grain. Creating a pottery piece has little meaning without the glaze that covers it.

Kate DORROUGH

Fusion, River Icon 2023

Stoneware ceramic with glaze

Shino glaze with underglaze and commercial glazes

37 x 33 x 31 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Jenni Carter

About the artwork

This hand-built ceramic vessel, a container and holder of liquid, echoes forms of antiquity. Using the ancient coiling technique with a layered surface, it speaks of an archetypal symbol—the river. The liquidity of poured glaze combined with a painterly approach to glaze application is fused with iron oxide within the stoneware clay.

Layers of glaze and slips applied to the surface are combined with an unorthodox approach to multiple firings, becoming a fusion of glaze, clay, and calligraphic marks, an inferred language or script. The work explores the river as subject, symbol and metaphor, acknowledging the need to understand and decipher in order to preserve the precious resource of water.

About the artist

Kate Dorrough is represented by Art House Gallery, Sydney. Exhibiting since 1996, she has held 23 solo exhibitions throughout Australia, as well as numerous group exhibitions, many of which in regional galleries. Selected exhibitions include at Manning Regional Gallery, 2019, The Cube, Mosman Art Gallery, 2021, and a touring exhibition, Heather + Kate Dorrough: Lineage 2023/2024; Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Manning Regional Gallery, Tamworth Regional Gallery, and Ararat Gallery, TAMA.

Kate’s work has been selected for the North Queensland, Gold Coast and Clunes Ceramic Awards; the Small Sculpture Prize, Ravenswood; Meroogal Women’s Art Prize; North Sydney Art Prize; Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Award; Still Life Award; and was included in the Australian Ceramic Association’s Course of Objects: The Fine Lines of Inquiry exhibition at Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney (2014).

Her ceramic work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, the Campbelltown Art Gallery, Grafton Regional Gallery, and Yirrila Arts & Museum collections.

Jan DOWNES

Materialised 2023

Porcelain

Underglaze and gloss clear glaze internally

18 x 15 x 15 cm each

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Greg Piper

About the artwork

My current ceramic practice is focused on the materiality of fabric and porcelain, impermanence and permanence. Soft clay and fabrics allow easy manipulation and are responsive to the most delicate touch. Once the clay is fired, that intangible softness is rendered permanent and rigid.

By pouring liquid porcelain inside a fabric mould, I record a moment in time—the temporary gathering, folding, drapery and texture of the cloth and paths of the stitchery.

The finished pieces are reminiscent of visual and tactile memories of fabrics intimate in our daily lives, such as the feel of clothing on our bodies, the fall of drapes, the mess of sheets on our beds, or the attachment to the cuddly toys we had as children.

About the artist

Jan Downes has a passion for porcelain, attracted to the fineness and translucency that is offered by this material. Her current practice combines fabric with porcelain. She holds a Master of Fine Art and taught ceramics at The University of Newcastle for many years. Currently, she makes work at Kil.n.it experimental ceramic studios in Glebe, Sydney, and occasionally teaches workshops.

Recently, Downes was a finalist in the Clunes and Woollahra Small Sculpture Prizes. In 2023, her pieces were a part of the Australian Design Centre’s display at the Melbourne Design Fair. In 2024, she exhibited HELD at Manly Art Gallery and Museum and is a finalist in the Ravenswood Award.

Lea DURIE

Mingling

2023

Wild clay, midfire terracotta clay, slips, underglaze, glazes, liquid quartz

White glaze

26 x 36 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Mingling is an exploration of a new place within an ancient landscape, and how care and responsibility might appear with an engagement beyond the human. What happens when the clean, human architecture of a new suburb is mingled with the labours of my urban human body and the nonhuman 350 million-year-old clay that lies just beneath the surface?

This new form of occupation seeks to smooth the surface of a landscape carrying the scars of extreme weather events and human habitation, covering it white. I seek out the messy stuff beneath the surface and begin an entanglement with this living matter.

Through this sensory engagement with the landscape, an animal–vegetable–mineral cluster takes shape. A tension is created and then eased; friction flares and then subsides. The thing force of the wild clay combines with the thing force of me. I consider our mutual responsibility in caring for this place.

About the artist

Lea Durie is based in Braidwood, NSW, and holds a Master of Contemporary Art Practice from the Australian National University (2024).

Lea has been the recipient of several awards, including the Belconnen Arts Centre Emerging Artist Award and The Craft + Design Canberra Emerging Contemporaries Award (both 2023). The same year, Lea received a Highly Commended mention at the Klytie Pate National Ceramic Award (2023) and won the QPRC 3D Art Award (2023). She also won the Canberra Potters Society Doug Alexander Award (2021).

Lea’s work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions. In early 2024, she undertook an environmental art residency at BigCi in Bilpin, NSW, and held a solo exhibition in the Craft + Design Canberra Crucible Space. Later in 2024, Lea will hold a solo exhibition at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

Aurora ELWELL

Desire 2024

Stoneware clay and glaze, kintsugi

Copper red glaze achieved in a cone 10 reduction atmosphere

47 x 39 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Through a deliberate and imposing form, this vessel aims to capture the essence of desire in its most raw and compelling state. This work was made in response to Aurora Elwell’s contemplation of the complexities of human longing, which can be experienced as both sharp and urgent, yet intricate and captivating.

The tendrils curl and twist upwards in a visual rhythm that mirrors the emotional tumult within. Desire acts as a conduit for the artist to explore and understand their own personal relationship with desire, and invites viewers into a deeper dialogue about the essence of yearning and how it shapes and compels us.

About the artist

Aurora Elwell is an emerging ceramic artist working on Yuggera Ugarapul lands, creating sculptural vessels that explore her own identity. Aurora meditates on her emotions during the making process and translates unspoken thoughts into tangible objects. Her ongoing body of work, ‘The Body Vessel’, is an investigation of deep emotions such as desire, depression, selfconsciousness, and ego.

Aurora graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts Second Class Honours degree in 2023 (University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba). She teaches workshops and throwing courses at the Darling Downs Pottery Club, Toowoomba, as well as engaging with the clay community as co-host of Birds of Clay, an Australian ceramics-focused podcast. Aurora received an honourable mention and exhibited in the Emerging World Stage exhibition at Clay Gulgong (2024), and most recently was selected as an exhibiting artist in artisan’s Unleashed (2024).

Cathy FRANZI

Western Mountain Banksia 2024

Porcelain

High-fired glaze and engobe

22.5 x 29 cm

Photo: Andrew Sikorski - Art Atelier Photography

About the artwork

This work is inspired by Banksia oreophila, a species endemic to the Stirling Range in Western Australia. Dr Cathy Franzi spent time in this biodiversity hotspot during a residency at Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany, accompanying Dr Sarah Barrett, a Threatened Species Officer, so as to deepen her understanding of the environment and science of the area. This attractive banksia has prickly serrated leaves and unusually coloured flower spikes.

The artist states:

I have developed a textural approach to representation, adapting aspects of printmaking and composition to the ceramic medium. Vessels are wheel-thrown using porcelain and altered, giving movement to the form from which to respond with the carving technique of sgraffito, to reveal the image from a black surface coating.

About the artist

Dr Cathy Franzi is a visual artist with an interdisciplinary practice in ceramics and botanical sciences. In 2015 she was awarded a PhD from the Australian National University (ANU) School of Art & Design with her topic “An Australian Botanical Narrative: A Practice-Led Enquiry into Representations of Australian Flora on the Ceramic Vessel as an Expression of Environmental Culture”. Botanical research is fundamental to the integrity of her work, supported by a Bachelor of Science and her engagement with scientists through volunteer work with the National Seed Bank and on residencies.

Cathy’s work is held in national and international public collections, including Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig, Germany; Shepparton Art Museum, Vic.; Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery; and Manly Art Gallery & Museum, NSW. She is the recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts grant, former President of The Australian Ceramics Association and is a sessional lecturer at ANU.

Susan FROST

Shades of Light 2023

Porcelain

Rutile and titanium glaze

9.5 x 70 x 10.5 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Shades of Light is a composition of tone, colour, and line aimed to convey the sensation of rhythm and light. Three soft grey vessels are arranged in a tonal movement from light to dark. They provide pace and contrast to another two vessels, punctuating the spaces between. These are glazed with a pattern on which hangs a study of colour. The yellow-gold projects into the viewer’s space as the cooler greys appear to recede. The specific placement of varying shades within these hues achieves a luminous glow.

This work applies Susan Frost’s deep knowledge of materials. The hues on the multi-coloured vessels originate from the same base glaze, with percentage variations of two colourants. The thickness of the glaze further alters the tone of each hue, appearing paler at the top where it is thinner, becoming richer further down the vessel, caused by it moving and pooling during the firing.

About the artist

Susan Frost completed her studies at the Adelaide College of the Arts in 2008 and is an alumni of the JamFactory Associate Program.

After developing a successful porcelain production range, Susan has produced corporate gifts for the Tour Down Under, centrepieces for guest rooms in the Crown Metropole in Melbourne, and table vases for Jacobs Creek Winery restaurant.

Susan’s practice extends to exhibition work; she created an installation for the SAM Showcase at Shepparton Art Museum and has been curated into exhibitions throughout Australia, including a major touring exhibition with the Australian Design Centre celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Australian Journal of Ceramics.

Preferring to work with a research-based approach, Susan has received numerous development grants from Arts South Australia, was a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize, Clunes Ceramic Award, and the North Queensland Ceramics Awards, and her work is in the collection of The City of Whitehorse, Vic.

Andrew GALL

Expanding Tradition 2024

Porcelain

Underglaze

1 x 0.6 cm each shell

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This is the second kanalaritja (shell necklace) strung using 3D printed porcelain shells. Ocean acidity levels are rising, so our shells for kanalaritja are fragile and diminishing. How can we protect our sacred Pakana tradition practised since time immemorial?

This necklace is my response to this threat of cultural extinction. My research was informed by published knowledge and first-hand accounts of Pakana ‘shell stringers’, the custodians of kanalaritja. I developed a process to make 3D printed porcelain shells, so they look, feel and act like the natural shells, and are safe from climate change and its devastation.

About the artist

Andrew Gall is a Pakana (Aboriginal man) from Lutruwita (Tasmania), who creates work under his spirit guide name Kurina. Every piece he creates derives from his personal and spiritual past, as well as from his Country and culture.

Andrew has a Doctor of Visual Arts from Queensland College of Arts (QCA), Griffith University (2023), a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Research and Leadership from the University of Melbourne (2021), and a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art with Honours, QCA, Griffith University (2017), among other qualifications.

In March 2024, he received the Emerging Artist Award at the Waterhouse Natural Science and Art Prize. Recent selected exhibitions include The Data Imagery: Fears and Fantasies, Brisbane and Canberra (2021–2023); Past, Present, Future; Court House Gallery, Cairns, Qld (2023); and Gone Fishing, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2023–2024).

Website: www.kurina-art.com.au

Instagram: @kurina_art

X: twitter.com/KurinaAndrew

Minna GRAHAM

Paperbark 2024

Stoneware clay

Pigment, rutile glaze, slips

Part one: 50 x 22 x 24 cm

Part two: 24 x 20 x 20 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Paperbark is inspired by the serene beauty of nature, particularly the interplay of light and shadow in the forest. The low winter sun creates enchanting silhouettes of trees, while mist and fire smoke add an ethereal quality to the surroundings. The work captures the delicate balance between fragility and strength, as represented by the paperbark trees huddling alone among the imposing eucalypts.

The shedding flakes symbolise vulnerability, remaining soft and velvet in the sunlight, yet exuding a sense of resilience. The pieces seek to evoke a deep sense of appreciation for the present moment and convey a message of hope for the future, despite its fragility.

About the artist

Based in Central Victoria, Minna Graham is a ceramic artist creating contemporary forms, specialising in tea-ware. Minna completed a Diploma of Ceramics at the University of Ballarat in 2012, and was awarded the Brian McLellan Award for Outstanding Achievement before continuing to study Fine Art majoring in Ceramics. During her study, Minna was awarded the Albert Coates Memorial Award for Excellence and was 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 (2018), going on to win the Australian Cultural Tea Seminar Teacup Competition (2019).

Since then, Minna has been shortlisted for many awards, including the Klytie Pate Ceramics Award (2021), Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Award (2021), Melbourne Ikebana Container Award (2021), Siliceous Award for Ceramic Excellence (2021), and recently, Winner of the Potters Choice Award Warrandyte Pottery Expo.

Drew GREEN

Jettison 2024

Porcelain casting slip and cotton thread

Unglazed

30 x 30 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Jettison is made using jute dipped into porcelain casting slip and wrapped around an armature. The resulting form was then broken into fragments after firing (cone 10) and assembled using cotton thread. I made the sculpture as a response to the unsustainable practices of fast fashion.

Our planet cannot sustain the insatiable practices and appetite of consumerism, consumption and ‘want’. These practices are unrealistic and harmful, impacting our finite available resources and ultimately the environment.

Perhaps we have forgotten that we only have one planet.

About the artist

Drew Green is a Sydney-based emerging artist and recent graduate of a Diploma of Ceramics. He also holds a Bachelor of Graphic Design and a Diploma of Photography. He is currently using porcelain and mixed media to explore the myriad and unexpected possibilities that can be achieved by combining seemingly unrelated materials together as a means of creating narrative in his work.

Drew’s preferred aesthetic is minimal and unfussy, as it gives him a sense of calmness, clarity, and contemplation when making. He finds that it offers him an escape from the clutter that is often part of daily living.

Baylee GRIFFIN

Corymbia Ficifolia 2024

Stoneware clay and sink trap clay

Gloss glaze and ash glaze

42 x 21 cm Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Amanda Galea, courtesy Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts

About the artwork

Glazed using a gradient effect with wood ash from local woodworking school Studio Dubbeld in Townsville, the blackened glossy bloom sits precariously on the tall form’s shoulder. The colour and textures of the clay mix appear towards the bottom of the piece, with specs of iron and quarts showing through.

Tedious and fragile, with a process that is labourintensive and yet addictively rhythmic, this blooming form and its curious composition reflect the flowering gums that blossom in the south during bushfire season.

About the artist

Baylee Griffin (they/she) is an artist and community arts facilitator. Largely working with ceramics, their practice is an act of resilience and reciprocity, rooted in identity and embodied ecocentrism. Baylee’s work in community arts has taken them throughout regional and rural Queensland, where they care deeply about fostering meaningful connections with, and holding safe spaces for diverse communities.

Baylee’s work has been presented in the 2022 North Queensland Ceramic Awards, PUNQ, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, and QCA Galleries, alongside small group shows through NQ Potters and Murky Waters Gallery. The artist received a 2023 RADF grant to interrogate the sustainability of their practice, and they shared their findings with the community through seminars and workshops. Baylee has written multiple articles for the Journal of Australian Ceramics as a part of their dedication to connecting regional practice to global dialogues.

Jeananne HAWTHORN

Contemplation of Yahweh 2024

Raku clay, mixed media

Bisque stoneware

53 x 22 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: J C Hawthorn

About the artwork

Contemplation of Yahweh is as possible as pouring the entire ocean into a hole dug in the sand. Existence, life, energy, the universe, creation, love, breath, fire, water, science, and faith are. We are. Genesis or the Big Bang? Big Bang no Genesis? Big Bang as Genesis? Mind, body, and soul. Science, the mind and body. Faith, the soul. Be, live, experience, and love. Breathe.

About the artist

Jeananne Hawthorn was born in Coromandel, New Zealand, and moved to Queensland in the late 1980s. She initially worked as an artist, picture framer, newspaper journalist, and gallery director in the Whitsundays, exhibiting work at Coral Sea, Airlie Beach, and Hayman Island. In 1993, she exhibited sculptures and paintings and taught clay sculpture in Mt Isa; in 1996 she moved to Chatsworth Station, via Boulia, where she explored large clay forms; and in 1997, Jeananne set up an art co-op and gallery in Ingham, worked as a newspaper journalist, and exhibited paintings and sculptures throughout Queensland.

In 2000, Jeananne completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Graduate Diploma of Education at James Cook University, Townsville. She exhibited mixed media paintings on canvas regionally. In 2010, she worked in Gladstone and exhibited at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery. From 2012 to 2024, she has exhibited in the Townsville region, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, including a solo exhibition at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts.

Fiona HISCOCK

Reverie (Bee Eater) 2024

Stoneware clay, porcelain slip

Clear gloss

45 x 20 x 19 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Christopher Sanders

About the artwork

Closely observing nature is integral to my practice. While making watercolour studies of kapok tree flowers to paint onto my vessels, I noticed Rainbow Bee eaters perched on the telephone wire outside my window. This work aims to highlight the close connection of birds to their habitat, the importance of water for survival, and the bond we all share in caring for the unique and fragile biodiversity of this continent. The glass holding the water represents my sense that this is a fine balancing act, often at risk, but a longed-for aspiration.

About the artist

Fiona Hiscock is represented by a number of private galleries throughout Australia. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections, including regional galleries such as the Ballarat, Bathurst, Geelong, Muswellbrook, Townsville and Shepparton Art Galleries. She has won a number of awards, most recently, the Muswellbrook Ceramic Art award in 2022 and the Stanthorpe Art Prize in 2021. She participates regularly in artist residency programs and works from her home studio in Naarm/Melbourne.

Bonnie HISLOP

Never Worked a Day in My Life 2024

Midfire clay

Underglaze, glaze, lustre, porcelain paint

38.5 x 21 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Melanie Hinds

About the artwork

Never Worked a Day in My Life forms part of an ongoing series exploring legacy through a femme lens.

Urn-like in appearance and emblazoned with the title phrase in 3D letters, the vessel comments on patriarchal perceptions of a life dedicated to feminine pursuits, particularly in the creative arts.

It is intentionally playful and highly decorative, featuring repeated illustrative motifs reminiscent of an adolescent sticker collection. On a surface level, these motifs are uncomplicated, innocuous and immature, yet they act to communicate the often misunderstood and underestimated artistic and academic pursuits of female and gender-diverse people.

About the artist

Bonnie Hislop is a Meanjin/Brisbane artist focusing on ceramics, particularly hand building and ceramic illustration. Grounded in technical skill, her practice has evolved from creating illustrative ceramic planters to large-scale sculptural work. Bonnie uses her forms to critically engage with the world around her and to document the human experience. 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.

Bonnie regularly facilitates ceramic classes, produces public programs and exhibits her work around Australia, most recently being part of Bundaberg Regional Gallery’s exhibition XX and QATACON24.

In 2023 she was a finalist in the Siliceous Award for Ceramic Excellence and the National Emerging Art Prize.

Marianne HUHN

Through the Trees 2023

Limoges porcelain and blue underglaze

Interior glaze only blue underglaze on exterior

Part one: 9 x 9 cm

Part two: 13 x 15 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Deb Garrett

About the artwork

Through the Trees began when I was drawing the trees in winter. Their stark shadows in the suburban streets where I live and the barren winter landscapes of rural Australia gave me ample lines and patterns to establish a narrative. As a phrase, ‘through the trees’ can also be seen as metaphor for looking beyond the surface of something, for seeing the layers beneath or behind. Looking for the hidden depths, meaning— gem, even—can be a useful tool in life. My hope is these pots act as a reminder of the hidden beauty of this season.

About the artist

Marianne Huhn began studying ceramics in 1988, and in 2016 she completed her PhD, “Politics and Porcelain”, for which researched the period between 1917 and 1924 of USSR Soviet porcelain propaganda. Surface design, drawing and text have continued to be a strength in her work. She has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout her career and been published in both Australian and international publications. Her work is held in several private collections, globally.

The artist states:

The functional object is more than a utilitarian object for me because I believe it holds more than the stuff of liquids and solids, it also holds our thoughts, our memories and our hopes. The narrative, the stories of the objects, who we are and where we are, become part of the narrative and life of the pot. Tangible forms have the capacity to anchor us and contain more than we know.

Nicci Parry JONES

Mental Notes 2023

Midfired white raku clay tower with additions: thrown clay teapot, wire, metal chain, brass bell and owl trinket

Manganese oxide wash and multiple glazes

54 x 20 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

I enjoyed creating this whimsical tower, a vertical landscape of natural and Steampunk elements in conversation with fairytale-like tableaus. After decades of working with clay, I trusted myself to sculpt this piece intuitively, with the process focusing my normally wandering mind. Over the many hours, I assembled a collection of mental notes. One was to remember to convey ideas through my art. In this piece, the idea is to embrace the delight of curiosity.

The symbolism of the tower has a long history, not least as a mystical or fantastical centrepiece in fairytales. This tower is a playful invitation to explore with the curiosity of a child: to discover joyful surprises; secrets held in drawers; and miniature wonders in hidden nooks.

About the artist

Nicci Parry Jones is a full-time ceramicist living on Tamborine Mountain, Queensland. She divides her time creating and teaching from a purpose-built studio. Her professional practice spans 30 years, and she’s held many solo and group exhibitions in NSW and Queensland. In 2022, her Steampunk Jabberwocky teapot was an award winner in the prestigious Sydney Teapot Show and in 2023 her entry received the People’s Choice Award. She has been a finalist in several national ceramic awards, including Ceramic Arts Queensland’s Siliceous Award and the Klytie Pate Ceramic Award.

She has an Advanced Diploma of Ceramics and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Communications. Nicci has travelled extensively and undertaken art residencies in Italy, Mexico and Malaysia, and provided masterclasses in the United States and Spain.

Nicci makes an ever-evolving small batch range of hand-made domestic ware, including one-of-a-kind Steampunk-inspired pieces and commissioned work under the brand PJ Pottery.

Janetta KERR-GRANT

Breakwater 2 2023

Porcelain blend

Ceramic stains and hand-made ceramic crayons

28 x 21 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Deb Garrett

About the artwork

Watching the Southern Ocean pound the rocks of Victoria’s Otway coast is exhilarating. An area known just as much for its sheeting rains as it is for its sunny days, it is a landscape that feels primal, visceral, simultaneously ever changing and eternal.

I drew on my memories of this area when creating this vessel. The surface is loose, scratched and layered, with washes of colour. This work signifies a place, a moment, a memory.

About the artist

Interconnections between landscape, atmosphere, mood, and memory are at the heart of Janetta KerrGrant’s ceramic practice.

Career highlights include being awarded artist residencies at the prestigious Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan and the innovative Fiskars Artist Collective in Finland. In 2018, Janetta won the Klytie Pate Ceramic Award. She has held several solo exhibitions and been selected for major group exhibitions nationally. Her work is held private and public collections, including the Bluestone Collection of Contemporary Craft, Melbourne; the AIR collection, Finland; and Manningham Art Gallery, Victoria.

Janetta graduated with First Class Honours from RMIT University in 2012, after being awarded a Trudie Alfred Bequest National Scholarship. In 2013 she received an Australia Council Grant to establish her practice.

Jen LANZ

Return to Earth 2023

Porcelain

Fly ash, not glazed prior to wood firing

16 x 14 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Return to Earth embodies an anti-capitalist ethos through its creation and philosophy. Each vase, positioned in different kiln zones, symbolises a dialogue against uniformity and mass production. The unpredictable nature of wood firing results in unique, unrepeatable pieces, rejecting capitalist ideals of standardisation. The vases play a game of ‘Marco Polo’, echoing each other’s presence through subtle variations in form and finish, emphasising individuality and the beauty in the differences.

About the artist

Jen Lanz is an American living and working in ceramics on Awabakal land. She has recently been awarded the HEAPS Prize in Ceramics and has been making commercial and work for exhibition for 10 years. Jen uses clay to mirror and extend vision, allowing lengthy observations of complex anti-capitalist principles.

Michelle LE PLASTRIER

I Can’t Remember Why I Came to This Room (Self Portrait) 2023

Midfire ceramic

Underglaze and clear glaze

46 x 32 x 26 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Ellamay Khongroj Fitzgerald

About the artwork

Have you ever felt like a pile of fragmented thoughts and feelings precariously assembled into human form? The artist shares with us her experience of having a complicated relationship with technology. The constant stream of information and endless consumption of content leads to fragmented thinking and a shortened attention span. Every day is complex battle between feeling connected, enjoying convenience, and feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, and a little precariously assembled.

About the artist

Michelle Le Plastrier is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on hand-built ceramics exploring identity, sociopolitical and environmental issues all in her signature candy-coloured style.

Michelle teaches introductory ceramics across SouthEast Queensland and has exhibited and produced workshops for galleries, councils and businesses across Australia. She currently works out of her Surfers Paradise studio, where she produces public programs and exhibitions.

She recently won the Environmental Art Award at the 2023 Queensland Regional Art Awards and was a finalist in the 2022 North QLD Ceramic Awards at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery. Michelle recently exhibited her body of work Dopamine Days at the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts (HOTA) gallery, and was an artist-in-residence through HOTA’s inaugural ArtKeeper program in 2021–22.

Michelle LE PLASTRIER

Riot 2023

Midfire ceramic

Underglaze and clear glaze

68 x 45.5 x 16 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Ellamay Khongroj Fitzgerald

About the artwork

The work Riot is the artist’s rebellion against stereotypes of what it means to be a ‘Gold Coaster’ and the assumed identity that this implies. Using the iconic palm tree synonymous with the city, the work depicts the artist building her own identity. She assembles a fulfilling life from pockets of the city’s subcultures and budding creative communities, creating a life filled with meaning and culture in a city that is historically not known for these experiences.

Born in the centre of the Gold Coast, the artist has witnessed the city’s transformation over the last 39 years. The work is a celebration of the vibrancy and creativity of this versatile city and connected community.

Samuel LEIGHTON-DORE

Threadbare 2024

Earthenware clay

Underglaze and clear glaze

9 x 52 x 50 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

In Threadbare, I reflect on a towel-strewn nostalgia synonymous with regular visits to my husband’s hometown of Ayr, Far North Queensland. Living on the Gold Coast and frequenting the Burdekin, including nearby Alva, rituals around the beach have become an important way of connecting with myself and those I love.

Underglazed by hand, the artwork depicts me as a sunbather in three different positions, surrounded by patterned beach towels reminiscent of those from my husband’s childhood—towels we still use today. The moment I’ve captured does not represent one exact memory, but a calm and colourful self-mythology I associate with my time here—one that smells like salt, sunscreen and insect repellent.

About the artist

Samuel Leighton-Dore is a multidisciplinary artist, screenwriter and author based on the Gold Coast. Working predominantly across ceramics, illustration and animation, his art brings colour and levity to themes of mental health, identity and sexuality. His work has appeared on the cover of the Journal of Australian Ceramics, been acquired into the Gold Coast City collection and the Tweed Regional Gallery collection, and has twice been selected for the biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards.

In 2019 he was named Visual Artist of the Year at ACON’s Honour Awards, recognising his creative contribution to the LGBTIQA+ arts community. He has released two books, How to Be a Big Strong Man (2019, Smith Street Books) and Wow It’s All a Lot (HarperCollins, 2023). He and his husband run Sad Man Studio, a production company focused on animation, and have a coming-of-age animated series in development with Ludo Studio, the producers of Bluey.

Margaret LILLEY

Lagynos 2024

White raku midfire clay

Crater glaze

28 x 18 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Luisa Manea

About the artwork

The inspiration for this piece is drawn from Greek amphorae and other pottery recovered from ancient shipwrecks. The unintentional embellishment by crustaceans enhances the aesthetic appeal of these relics. I have used a crater glaze to recreate the pitted and textured surface, reminiscent of the corals and barnacles that have colonised these maritime artefacts.

About the artist

Margaret Lilley has a Bachelor of Art in Ceramic Design (La Trobe University, Bendigo) and has recently returned to ceramic practice after a lengthy hiatus. Her interest lies in classical pottery and its reinterpretation through history. She is inspired particularly by Greek Attic pottery, Islamic pottery (particularly Nishapur and Seljuk pottery), and the ornate vases of the Baroque and Rococo periods.

Margaret LILLEY

Pastiche Vase 1 2024

Red raku midfire clay

White satin matte and crater glaze

44 x 30 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Luisa Manea

About the artwork

Pastiche combines elements of different periods. For this vase, I have used cake-decorating moulds to recreate the typical intricate detailing, elaborate curves and lavish decorative motifs found in works of the Baroque and Rococo periods.

My wish is to convey the joy and pleasure that comes from making objects from clay. This vase is a frivolous expression of creativity, yet it still pays homage to the artistry and craftsmanship of these periods.

Margaret LILLEY

Pastiche Vase 2 2024

Red raku midfire clay

White satin matte, crater glaze

40 x 25 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Luisa Manea

About the artwork

Pastiche combines elements of different periods. For this vase, I have used cake-decorating moulds to recreate the typical intricate detailing, elaborate curves and lavish decorative motifs found in works of the Baroque and Rococo periods.

My wish is to convey the joy and pleasure that comes from making objects from clay. This vase is a frivolous expression of creativity, yet it still pays homage to the artistry and craftsmanship of these periods.

Simone LINDER-PATTON

Gathering Moss 2024

Midfire clay

No glaze

15 x 28 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Having survived for 450 million years, and comprising 15,000–25,000 species, moss grows on every continent and in every ecosystem inhabited by plants that use sunlight for energy. In the world of plants, the bryophytes are the second-most diverse group. Due to their range of adaptations, mosses grow in many different environments, and can occupy areas that are otherwise considered uninhabitable.

My work is an invitation to slow down and take the time to appreciate the natural world, and to find wonder and significance in the small and often overlooked.

A meditation on time, growth, biodiversity and the interconnectedness of all living things, my work aims to offer an opportunity to reconnect with nature, to find beauty in simplicity, and to embrace the ever-changing, ever-growing essence of the world around us.

About the artist

Simone Linder-Patton is an early career South Australian ceramic artist. She graduated with a Visual Arts (Hons) degree from Flinders University and TAFE SA in 2017, having taken Ceramics as her major in her bachelor’s degree (2016). In 2016 Simone travelled to the pottery workshop Jingdezhen, China, for a six-week artist’s residency funded by the Helpmann Academy.

Working across a range of clay bodies, Simone uses alternative firing techniques to explore the confluence of the elements on her hand-built pieces. Having completed a wood-firing mentorship with Ben Richardson of Ridgeline Pottery Tasmania (2022), her current work has evolved from searching for place and the placement of objects within a defined landscape.

Simone’s award-winning work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, locally and nationally. Previously a studio tenant with JamFactory, Simone works and teaches from her studio in the Adelaide Hills, creating unique functional and sculptural ceramic forms.

Lachlan MACKEE

Golden Bridge Form 2 2024

Stoneware clay

Ash glaze and clay slip

16 x 8.3 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Golden Bridge Form 2 is a cylindrical form created during my time as a student at the Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, India. The clay for the cylinder was handprocessed by students using raw materials mined in India. And glazed with a combination of a grey wood ash glaze made from casuarina wood and clay slip from a province in Bangalore. The piece was one of the hundreds of practice cylinder forms I threw during my study period and was fired in a downdraft woodkiln for 24 hours. The firing process has transformed the surface of the piece, imbuing it with ash and leaving the marks of the flame path along its surface.

About the artist

Lachlan Mackee is an emerging studio potter working with reduction and atmospheric firing processes. In 2024 he travelled to India to study the art of traditional production pottery and woodfiring at the Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu. Post study, his work focuses on using local materials for firing and in the production and decoration of his ware, hoping to connect place and pot from his studio in Cairns, Far North Queensland. His work seeks to explore the intimate processes of individual ritual and reflection in the context of everyday life. His hope is a bond is formed from maker to user through the objects he creates.

Lachlan is committed to the small but dedicated scene of woodfiring potters in North Queensland and hopes to build on the lineage through mentorship and the expansion of his community.

Bird in Ruff 2024

Stoneware

Glaze

34 x 20 x 13.5 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Bird in Ruff is part of an ongoing series ‘Bird Busts’, which explores the vast spectrum of universal emotions and feelings through non-verbal communication.

Through naïve, idiosyncratic proportions and the juxtaposition of half-human, half-bird, I aim to express that which is silent, but seen through movement and gesture—communicating humour, character and similarities shared between us and our avian friends.

About the artist

Annie Mangen’s work is informed by her interest in the human experience and engages with the tensions of juxtaposition through form, colour and subject matter.

A sense of duality is expressed through Annie’s work, as she ponders the space between simplicity and complexity. Her sculptural works evoke a playful yet bold quirk, and mirror her interest in delving into themes of the self and the thicket of inner life.

Each piece is laboured over using a hand-built method, evolving intuitively and celebrates the peculiarities found in each piece.

www.anniemangen.com‍ @anniemangen

Annie MANGEN

Gillian MARTIN

Pistachio Gelato 2024

Stoneware

Terra sigillata

38 x 30 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This series of work reflects my deep love for ice cream and its copious flavours. Each piece is a tribute to the joy and nostalgia that ice cream brings, capturing the essence of its delightful variety in form and colour. The textures and hues are chosen to evoke the creamy richness, the swirl of flavours, and the playful spirit of this beloved treat. Through this series, I aim to celebrate the simple pleasures and sweet moments that ice cream represents.

About the artist

Gillian Martin is an artist creating and working in Naarm/ Melbourne. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Ceramics) from Monash University and then worked for a number of years in photography. Since returning to ceramics in recent years, Gillian has employed her skills to exploring variations in design, colour and materials. By incorporating terra sigillata stripes to large forms, she creates a harmonious balance that blends and highlights the undulating curves that circle the organic vessels.

Fiona MCDONALD

Holding Space | Nested Memory 2024

Porcelain clay, stoneware clay, black midfire clay

Unglazed

28 x 32 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Oftentimes, there is a disconnect between mind and body, with narrative causing the act of remembering to be less accessible as time stretches and contracts. Thus, it can be hard to place emotion within memory made up of multiple linked experiences. The three parts within the sculpture—before the moment (white), during (cream), and after (black)— are interchangeable within the work. They can be separated, showing how memory can change relative to where and how we are in any moment.

The opportunity to learn from these emotions and memories is made possible by representing them in physical form, which encourages a reconnect between the physical and the remembered, and enables us to reconsider memory and emotion from multiple viewpoints. Viewers are privy to a physical disclosure of memory within time, one that is malleable and changeable, just as our experience is relative to where we are in our own story.

About the artist

Fiona McDonald lives and makes work in Torquay, Victoria, Wadawurrung Country. Fiona’s professional and personal experience encompasses briefs and commissions undertaken as a solo artist to those that are collaborations between people of varying skills and disciplines. The outcome of each of these relies on the ability to communicate ideas and realise them to a satisfying end for all involved.

Fiona’s formal training is in graphic design, which is a wonderful backdrop to her skills across multiple disciplines, including ceramics. With every new thing that she learns about clay, she realises there is so much more. It is through not knowing the rules that she is able to pursue ideas in a lateral space. She shares the skills she develops with other artists and in workshops offered to the public.

Fiona has exhibited widely and has had her work featured in several prestigious publications. Selected exhibitions and prizes include North Queensland Ceramic Award – Finalist (2024), Deakin Small Sculpture Award – Finalist (2024), The Tangibility of Time & Memory, Hoop Gallery (2024), Small Works Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery (2024), Forty Five Downstairs – Selected For Emerging Artist Award (2023), and Clunes Ceramic Acquisitive Award, Finalist (2019).

Moraig MCKENNA

Trug with Silver Repair 2024

Wood-fired salt glazed stoneware

Porcelain slip, ash glaze

17 x 47 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This work is marked and textured, layered with slip and glaze, salt, and ash. Through the process of making and firing, some layers are revealed and some are obscured. These surfaces tell of my experience working with clay, my response to the material and of the ceramic traditions that influence and inform my work.

What is on the surface manifests what lies within: the material experience of the object. Like human skin or a landscape, the surface maps experiences and the passage of time. The surface tells the story of an object through marks and scars.

The mark of my hand is evident in this work. For me, these marks signify a connection between me as the maker and the hand of the imagined user.

About the artist

Moraig McKenna lives and works in Gundaroo, NSW. Moraig has been working with clay since 1991 and specialises in wood-fired and salt-glazed porcelain. She has a Bachelor of Education from Melbourne University and in 2002 received a Master of Arts by Research from Southern Cross University, NSW.

Moraig’s work is made using both the potter’s wheel or hand-built using slabs of clay. Her work is often constructed from altered parts. Moraig likes to play with the elements of function in her work, including handles, spouts, rims and feet to express the creative possibilities of domestic items.

Moraig exhibits regularly both in Australia and overseas. She has work in private collections in the United States, Singapore, and Australia, and in the public collection of the Canberra Museum and Gallery.

Jean MCMASTER

Dry Season Jar 2024

Local ‘front-gate’ stoneware clay, wood-fired

Wild clay and China clay slips, Shino glaze using local clays and rocks, ash glaze using ash from local eucalypts and casuarina

22 x 24 x 24 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

I fire my wood kiln through the wet season and into the dry season until the threat of bush fire looms. Wood firing is a dynamic process of which I do not necessarily have total control. My kiln responds to changes in the weather, the moisture in the ground and the wood. Flames dance differently through the pottery and subtle changes in the kiln atmosphere alter the chemistry of glaze and clay. Each season has its own subtle character, reflected in my work.

This piece evokes the essence of the dry season in the Tropical Highland forest on Jirrbal Country.

About the artist

There is a direct conversation going on between Jean McMaster, her raw materials, and the rugged landscapes from which they come.

Rough, molten surfaces littered with felspathic rock take you up into her landscapes in the Far North of Australia. The work is both robust and delicate, with the tension of the natural world expressed in balance and spirit.

The artist states:

Experimenting with ash and Shino type glaze appeals to my sense of simplicity. I am using very simple materials— ash from my fireplace and local clays, limestone, and feldspars that I collect.

As a ceramic artist, Jean strives to build a knowledge of ‘materials under her feet’. She collects rocks on walks through the hills surrounding her studio. These are crushed, sieved and mixed with local clays and ash. Using local materials, firing with wood, open to unpredictability, uncertainty and ambiguity, Jean brings distinct and unique characteristics to her work.

Lilach MILEIKOWSKI

Nestled 2023

Stoneware clay, porcelain slip, layered ceramic glaze materials, textured fabric, screen-print stain application, dry glazes, multiple firing

21 x 30 x 16 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This artwork is about connection, human fragility, and the search for fortitude and cultural integration. Nestled by the form are delicate porcelain parchments inscribed with a sacred Hebrew prayer.

“Birkat-HaKohanim” is traditionally recited as a farewell blessing for loved ones, wishing for wellbeing and sustenance. Fused into the form, it reflects on the dual notion of the need to comfort and protect and the need of being sheltered.

Presenting ideas of personal and universal significance, this work conveys a fusion of many disparate elements: clay to fabric, nature to man-made, past to present, frozen moment to eternity. Reflecting on nature’s malleable way of reproduction and its way of shielding vulnerable organs, the organic shaped forms are repeated and joined, creating one whole. Each component exists to balance the other, resulting in a work that is simultaneously precarious and resilient. A metaphor for the migrant experience.

About the artist

Lilach Mileikowski is a ceramic artist based in Naarm/ Melbourne. Originally from Israel with a background in graphic design, Lilach migrated to Australia in 1995, completed a Diploma of Arts Ceramics, followed by an Advanced Diploma of Creative Product Development. In 2016 she completed a Master of Fine Art at RMIT University, with her research focusing on the spiritual and political concerns of identity exploring the dual notions of fragility and strength.

Lilach’s work is held in private collections in Australia and internationally. She has been included in prestigious exhibitions, such as the International Ceramics Festival, Mino, Japan; Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award, Qld; Victorian Ceramic Art Award; Muswellbrook Art Prize, NSW; Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, NSW; and The Lake Macquarie Art Prize, NSW.

Most recently, her work was celebrated in a solo show SUSTENANCE (2023), was selected as a finalist for the Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition, Victoria (2024), and for the Australian Ceramics Association Exhibition HELD, NSW (2024).

Invited by the Interior Designer Simone Haag, Lilach will be participating in the Craft Victoria end-of-year show, Fables & Folklore, Victoria, November 2024 – January 2025.

Pamela MILLER

River bed II 2024

Stoneware clay

Multiple glazes: clear glaze, magnesium glaze, tin glaze, slate glaze, oxides and stain

14.5 x 18 x 19 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Jonathan March

About the artwork

This sculpture seems as if part of a landscape held aloft—as if incomplete and still forming and unforming, as nature does. It is a reminder of something unseen and unknown, ambiguous and enigmatic. It stands as a strong yet fragile fragment to send us searching into our subconscious to wonder at the whole. Carrying environmental references and imaginative narratives, the sculpture evokes themes of metamorphosis within the ceramic process and through our memory and the passage of time.

About the artist

Pamela Miller completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) at the Victorian College of the Arts (1990), and then established her own studio practice, leading to the award of the Dyason and Marten Bequests (1995). She later completed a Master of Fine Art (Sculpture) at the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland (1997). She made four separate site-specific installations at the Demarco European Art Foundation, Edinburgh and Bankton House Dovecote, Prestonpans, during her studies in Scotland.

She was awarded a John Kinross Travelling Scholarship from the Royal Scottish Academy (1997) and spent three months drawing in Italy. Some drawings were acquired by the Academy. Returning to Australia, Pamela continued to create site-specific installations. She held solo exhibitions at Temple, Talk Artist Initiative, and Linden Galleries. Since 2018, Pamela has explored the possibilities of ceramics at the School of Clay and Art (Melbourne), creating abstract stoneware sculptures, with an emphasis on organic forms and experimenting with different glazing styles.

Pru MORRISON

A Tribute to a Holy Man 2023

Earthenware and terrasigillata

Terrasigillata

50 x 21 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Here is a portrait of a holy man. He was a chain smoker with a big nose and dark eyes. He was gentle and private and wore long white socks held up with elastic garters. They were always paired with bone shorts densely sprinkled with ash burns. He liked people, so he made clumsily made cheese sandwiches on thick white bread for anyone who was hungry. His best friend was Billy Green who unexpectedly choked on a chop in 2001. RIP Billy Green.

This holy man with cartoonish features flashed and blazed in my life as my father.

About the artist

Pru Morrison has a bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from the City Art Institute, NSW University (1985), a Certificate in Art from Newcastle TAFE (1982), and an Advanced Diploma of Arts (Ceramics) from Southbank TAFE (2000). Since then, she has been a practising artist, interpreting thoughts and conversations that manifest as an intimate and personal language of art through clay.

Pru has exhibited in many galleries nationally, the most notable being Ray Hughes Gallery in the mid-2000s. According to the artist, “The most enjoyable part of my practice is collecting, recording and finally fashioning ideas and data into a considered work of ceramic art.”

Jude MUDUIOA

The Space I Hold for You 2024

Recycled stoneware

White slip, black terra sig, clear glaze

49 x 49 x 7 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This is the space that I hold for those that I love, the space that we all hold for those we love. The safe space, sometimes physical, mostly emotional space that we are privileged to share with others. It is with these people we find no judgement, only support and care, appreciation and kind words. It is a space to rest, recover, a truly safe, privileged space to share with only a few.

About the artist

Jude Muduioa is a sculptural ceramicist whose practice examines the expression of relationships and this subtlety. Jude has exhibited in Brisbane, Sydney, Tasmania, New Zealand and the United States. Her work is held in private collections. She is currently part of the Clay Cohorts Continuum Sculpture Program 2024.

Her academic qualifications in clay, visual art and ceramics span the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Selected recent exhibitions include Clay Cohorts Group Exhibition, Good Earth Pottery, Washington (2024); Bay of Fires Art Prize, Finalist, St Helens, Tasmania (2024); BIA Members Exhibition, Brisbane (2023); Elemental, Brisbane (2023); Georges River Art Prize, Hurstville Museum and Gallery, Sydney (2023); Ipswich Art Awards, Ipswich (2023); and National Emerging Art Prize, Michael Reid CLAY, Sydney (2021).

Julie NASH

Hindsight 2024

Midfire clay

Underglaze pencil drawings and ceramic stains

21 x 10.5 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

If, like me, you were a child in the 1970s, this object will evoke childhood memories of carefree days catching bugs in the backyard. Back then, insects were plentiful, seen as pests, and we had never heard of ecosystems or endangered species.

Today, with evidence rolling in from countries across the globe, insect populations are experiencing dramatic declines, due to intensive agriculture, pesticides, habitat loss and climate change.

Insects are vital to our ecosystems: they are pollinators, pest controllers and waste managers. They are food to countless birds, reptiles, mammals and fish. Left unchecked, the ongoing loss of insects will impact widespread ecosystems, affecting our own daily lives in catastrophic ways. In hindsight, we should have done better!

The insects and plants depicted here are from the Sydney region and the endangered Eastern Suburbs banksia scrub. Extensively cleared for urban development, less than 1 percent of this ecosystem remains today.

About the artist

Julie Nash is a visual artist and teacher based in NSW, specialising in ceramics. She makes objects rich with associations of place, people and the past. Memories are awakened and connections collapse time and space. Looking at the development of land use in Australia creates a discourse with environmental issues. Responses are expressed through subtle clues, drawn and carved onto the surfaces of the objects. These strong compositions explore the use of pattern, rhythm and space within the form. Something ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Julie has been a practising and exhibiting artist for 20 years. She has taught art to children, community groups and TAFE students. She has also been involved with many communitybased art projects, including mural painting, theatre set design, tile panel installation, festivals and market stalls. She holds an Undergraduate Certificate in Creative Arts, University of Southern Queensland (2024) and an Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts (Ceramics), TAFE NSW (2023).

Her work No Bees, No Life 3 was selected for the Klytie Pate Ceramics Award (2023); No Bees, No Life 1 & 2 were selected for the North Queensland Ceramic Award (2022); Under Threat was selected for the North Sydney Art Prize (2022); Under the Scope was selected for the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (2020); Past Tense, Impact Present was selected for the Clunes Ceramic Award (2019). This work was acquired by The Ballarat Art Gallery and is held in their collection. She won the Open Sculpture Award, 50th National Pottery Award, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (2018); and Rise and Fall, a collaboration with Jeremy Sheehan, was selected for Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi Beach (2017).

Alice NIXON

Remain Quiet 2022

Earthenware slip cast

Gold earthenware glaze

20 x 30 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

I called this stylised sea urchin sculpture Remain Quiet, drawing on the amazing discovery that some urchins can live up to 200 years. I sought to capture the urchin’s unique lantern shape and the marine animal’s intriguing patterning. I wanted this sculpture’s hand-made, non-industrial feel to simulate the essential tactile quality of the urchin’s shell.

About the artist

Alice Nixon has been a practising artist for many years. She holds a Fine Arts degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Sculpture. Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards and commissions, such as creating 16 bronze sculptures for Sydney Road in Brunswick, two arches for the City of Box Hill, and a playground for the City of Whitehorse and St Kilda. Alice has also been commissioned to create large ceramic sculptures for South Gate, various parks and gardens around Melbourne, and numerous private commissions.

Kim NOLAN

Fractured 2023

Midfire recycled clay

Different layers of opaque and transparent glazes, lava glaze, oxide and sand washes, underglazes, coloured slip, glass

20 x 21 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This work is about resilience in myself and the environment where I live. As I deal with anxiety and depression, my environment is a source of calmness, a meditative place.

Recycling the clay, I re-create something new from something used. I create the structure by throwing it on the wheel, distorting the symmetrical form to create an organic one; I then remove clay to add clay in different places. Changing the chemical structure of the clay in a bisque firing creates some rigidity. I then chip away at this rigidity to create fragments and cracks. Creating vulnerabilities in the work exposes layers of texture, sharp and soft. I then build up the work with more layers, colours, opaque and transparent, rough and smooth. Defying boundaries in the final firing process, there is a complete immersion of the form in colour and texture. The form is the same but the view changes—hidden details emerge, maybe creating a curiosity perhaps of ourselves and where we live.

About the artist

Kim Nolan holds a diploma in Hot Glass and Production from Whanganui Polytechnic, New Zealand. She has completed four years of ceramics study at TAFE. She is currently undertaking a six-month online mentorship program, Evolve. Kim currently works from her own studio at Kewarra Beach and works one day a week in the Ceramic Department at TAFE Cairns as a Studio Technician.

Kim enjoys making forms that reflect her fascination with nature and its impact on organic materials. She observes nature in a way that is meditative, so the small details, colours, textures, patterns and sound become apparent. She looks for different processes, techniques and layering of texture and surface decoration to achieve a depth which makes viewers want to pick up and explore her work. Kim hopes her pieces will evoke an emotional response and encourage people to become more attentive to what is in front of them.

Kim NOLAN

Stoic 2023

Midfire recycled clay

Different layers of opaque and transparent glazes, lava glaze, oxide and sand washes, underglazes, coloured slip, glass

18 x 21 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

When floating on top of the water out at the reef, I am reminded how short life is. This work is about me accepting what is outside my control and focusing on what I can control.

The piece is heavy and appears to only be able to sit on its base, determined to remain impassive and stoic. Dense darker colours used in the interior give the sense of heaviness. But what if the work is placed in a different position, changing its perspective? The colours lighten, with brighter tones peeking through; the undulations no longer seem so dark, and details previously hidden emerge. The work can change just by placing it on a different angle, seeing it in a different light. It is a reminder for us to stop and change our angle every once in a while, to focus on what we are in control of, which can change our point of view.

About the artist

Kim Nolan expresses herself through organic forms inspired by the various different environments in which she has lived. When creating a piece, she draws on the experience of being in nature and how it made her feel. Therefore, her work is very intuitive. She is also experimental, trying new approaches in her creative process. She states:

I am forever asking myself what if I tried this or did it this way. I quite often fire my work on its side and add glass to melt over the work, so when it’s viewed the right way up, it creates a different kind of movement in the surface decoration. I also like my work to be viewed from any angle and have hidden details that only reveal themselves upon close study. I glaze the complete piece, which is challenging when it comes to firing it, but I enjoy the challenge of pushing my boundaries when I am creating.

Susan NUTTALL

Roots in Clay and Cane 2024

Buff raku trachyte (BRT) clay

White clay slip

28 x 31 x 10 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This triptych maps my personal experience of place within the cultural history of the Burdekin region in North Queensland. The thin tubular forms reference my childhood memories of a landscape dominated by paddocks of tall sugar cane. The three vessels, differentiated by handles or ‘ears’, represents the area’s predominant racial groups of Anglo-Celtic, Italian, and South Sea Islander heritage. Etched and continued through each face of the vases is an aerial view of the Burdekin River.

This mighty river is the common thread linking these different groups and the sugar industry through indentured labour, toil, enterprise and a shared history. The reverse face depicts the Burdekin Falls Dam, an engineering feat built to provide the community with water security. The reservoir, a product of human intervention, has changed the river and impacted the fate of the people and animals living within its rich delta system.

About the artist

Susan Nuttall grew up in a home where there was a thin grey film over everything. She has childhood memories of her mother and her friends gathering under the mango tree in their backyard in Ayr to pit or raku fire. Therefore, as the artist remarks, ceramics seemed to be impressed or “sgrafittoed” into Susan’s DNA. Her own practice began in 2017, when she attended Kensington College in London to attain a BTec qualification in Ceramics.

She is currently living and working in Perth, employing techniques such as Japanese Kurinuki (carving from a solid block of clay) and coiling. Her pieces often reference shapes from antiquity, especially Mesopotamia and Egypt, sometimes mashing these up with Japanese animé. As she states, “I like my ceramics to tell a story, to raise a smile, and sometimes, on the rare occasion, to hold a cup of tea.”

Jane ORME

Cycle 2023

Midfire porcelain

Semi-transparent glaze

8 x 120 x 120 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Anna Singleton

About the artwork

The vessel holds, but what it holds is open for interpretation. Does it hold liquid or grief, tea, a baby, or hope?

Cycle references the loss of a personal cycle (from the removal of a uterus) but a reconnection to a universal cycle—celebrating/mourning the felt changes in the artist’s body and identity. These vessels, all slightly different, are made of clay. They embrace tactility and its age-old relationship to the connection of body and earth, returning the artist’s story to the universal story of life and death and our place within it.

About the artist

Jane Orme is a ceramicist working on Wakka Wakka and Yuggera Country. She is passionate about making bespoke functional work that shows the maker’s hand and holds story. The ability for a vessel to hold underpins all of Jane’s practice—hold tea, hold space, hold hope. She believes that making art and working with clay is healing, and aims to share this with others through her practice. Jane’s current work references personal and universal stories, such as that of the current state of women’s health, connecting the maker and viewer to create dialogue and enact change.

Sarah ORMONDE

Field Notes from Home 2024

High fired stoneware

Satin matte, high fired

Set of 3:

Vase 1: 19 x 26 cm

Vase 2: 19 x 17 cm

Vase 3: 19 x 27 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Craig Bryant

About the artwork

Field Notes from Home is a series of vases drawn from the long low headlands of the far south coast of NSW.

They describe the dense bush interrupted by fence lines defining paddocks, rushes encircling dams and the headlands meeting the sea. They are winter pieces: the tourists have gone, and the coast is resting, the land is shrouded in shadows, and the sky is filled with cloud.

The surfaces of the work are layered with slips and oxides to explore the movement of the elements that have created this place. The line work traces the moments when the land has been walked over or scarred by use.

They are notes from my home.

About the artist

Sarah Ormonde lives with her family and an assortment of dogs in a clay house on top of a hill, on the far south coast of NSW, overlooking the sea.

Each series of pots starts with drawing trips out to local places that show the movement of wind and water, movement that is etched into the stillness of the earth.

Sarah creates forms and surfaces that tell the story of the landscape. The forms reference shapes seen or felt within the landscape. The surfaces are scored, inlaid, scraped, painted, and drawn on with natural minerals, oxides, and clays. Each tells a story of a moment in time.

Sarah has exhibited throughout Australia and internationally. She has a Fine Arts degree in Painting from Curtin University, Perth, and a Master’s degree in Ceramics from the Australian National University, Canberra.

Emma J V PARKER

Altogether Hidden 2023

Porcelain

Underglaze

30 x 16 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

A well-intentioned immigrant was curious about the diverse flora and fauna in his rich new country of constant summer, which were so varied and different from that found in his own small, cold island. His same-faced friends couldn’t tell him the names of the trees he saw, the gold and black birds that are rarely heard, or the precious creatures dwindling in number—only those named after long-gone Englishmen.

In his eagerness to learn about these wonders and to see for himself the big rock in the red desert, the blue rainforests, and the sad white reefs, he discovered dark unexpected truths. The bounty is limited. The summer is not endless, and the new world is very old indeed. It stings and bites and the brilliant sun is heavy and hard. Children were stolen. Nature was named and misunderstood. A land of opportunity, lucky for some. He closed his eyes and stopped learning.

About the artist

A British-born ceramic artist, Emma J V Parker has been based in Melbourne/Naarm since 2018. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Hons (Ceramics) in 1998 at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, and Master of Fine Arts in 2001. She went on to train as a secondary school teacher and worked with ceramics in arts education for almost 20 years in both the UK and Australia. Following her passion for working with clay, she shifted focus from teaching to a professional arts practice in 2019.

As a hand-builder, she concentrates on figurative subjects, being particularly influenced by American and European ceramic sculpture. She tends to slab-build with porcelain and treat the surface with underglaze colour. Her sculptural work is informed by history, literature and first-hand experiences of people and situations that she encounters. Emma states: “Storytelling is essential to my practice and each piece is made with careful consideration of both its form and meaning”.

Bill POWELL

Untitled 2024

Midfire black stoneware and Lumina Porcelain

Underglaze

20 x 29 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This stretched squat blossom vase takes advantage of the high-contrast colour palette of a black granular clay called ‘dark matter’ and a pure white slip of Lumina Porcelain. Both of these are raw, unglazed and stretched from within to form a texture and patternation that expresses the actions of the making.

About the artist

Bill Powell has been a potter for over four decades, was formerly president of Ceramic Arts Queensland, and is the founding owner and Principal of CeramX School of Clay and Glass on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Bill specialises in wheel throwing, along with glazes for special effects, and conducts workshops on a regular basis both nationally and internationally, having worked in the United States, France, Spain and New Zealand.

Nani PUSPASARI

She Lifts, She Smirks 2024 Earthenware

Underglaze, glaze, gold lustre

26 x 16 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

She Lifts, She Smirks explores the intricate connections between femininity, masculinity, and the biases that women encounter across different industries. By purposefully depicting a figure elegantly holding a broken dumbbell in one hand and confidently gripping a pair of intact dumbbells in the other, the artwork powerfully captures the challenges related to women’s independence and societal judgements.

This sculpture seeks to encourage reflection on the diverse path toward equality, highlighting the strength and resilience of women despite certain limiting societal expectations.

About the artist

Nani Puspasari, a Chinese–Indonesian visual artist based in Naarm/Melbourne, migrated to Australia in 2008. She holds a Bachelor of Design degree from Swinburne University and earned her Master of Fine Art from RMIT in 2010. Nani’s diverse artistic practice encompasses painting, graphics, installation, and ceramic sculpture, exploring the intersection of childhood memories, identity, migration, and cultural hybridity. Her work delves into emotions of innocence, anxiety, loss, and sorrow. Drawing inspiration from the vibrant colours and intricate patterns of traditional Asian art and the bold forms of Western art, her work engages with the complexities of cultural influences on self-perception and belonging. In 2023, she was a finalist in the Muswellbrook Art Prize, the Hornsby Art Prize, and TRAILS Sculpture Prize.

Danish QUAPOOR

stubborn forces 2022

Porcelain paperclay with clear gloss glaze and baling twine

24.5 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Amanda Galea

About the artwork

This is a key work from Danish Quapoor’s good grief series. The series considers Quapoor’s father’s unexpected death as a catalyst for memory, grief and an interrogation of personal identity. stubborn forces explores the duo’s time spent baling lucerne hay together, and their shared stubbornness to diverging ideologies, including the ostensibly opposing forces of queerness, religion and morality. These binaries are implied through the contrast of the brittle ceramic base to the more flexible (yet constricted) baling twine, and further through the contrasts of light and dark, smooth and rough, fragile and rigid, and heavy and lightweight. The precarity of the form’s balance is telling within this push and pull: there can be no victor between stubborn forces.

About the artist

Danish Quapoor is the artist pseudonym of Daniel Qualischefski, born in Tulmur/Ipswich. He is a visual artist currently based in Gurambilbarra/Townsville. His multidisciplinary practice is typically unified by repetitive processes and a flat-colour style in which stylised forms float amid sparse compositions. The artist was the recipient of the 2024 Percival Photographic Portrait Prize (Townsville City Galleries), and the inaugural 2023 School of Creative Arts Alumni Fellow (University of Southern Queensland, UniSQ). He was selected for Outerspace’s online SUPERCUT project (2022), QAGOMA’s Art as Exchange program (2021) and the Australian Ceramics Triennale (2012). Quapoor holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management (University of Melbourne), a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Creative Arts), Honours (UniSQ). He has works held in the City of Townsville Art Collection and the Toowoomba City Collection. Recent articles about his work have featured in The Journal of Australian Ceramics and Art Guide.

Liz RANGER-CRAVEN

Reflections: Catch Me, I’m Falling When It Rains 2023

Hand-built stoneware

Painted with underglazes, clear glaze and lustres

Each vase 42 x 23 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

The strongest people are often those who have known suffering, struggle, loss or defeat, yet still persist to overcome, endure, transform and escape. They become greater than their circumstances. People grow by allowing themselves to experience all that life offers. These vases portray the common compulsion to remain stoic and ‘strong’ while there is turmoil inside and around us. Memories and past experiences are the lenses through which we perceive life, but they gradually fade and blend into the background. Birds are used in this work as a symbol of transcendence and transformation: a journey from one part of your life to another.

If I could speak to my younger self, I would stress that the cliché “life is a journey” holds truth, and that life is filled with promise, challenge, pain, pleasure and disappointment. By persevering, appreciating and accepting life, we allow dreams to take flight. The paint is applied in layers, encompassing the past and the present of our lives, building a vibrant decorative surface that tells a story. It is a reflection of life, family and ancestry.

About the artist

Liz Ranger-Craven immigrated to Australia from South Africa in 2011 and currently resides in Mackay, Queensland. She studied fine art at university, majoring in printmaking and sculpture; this instigated her passion for clay. All her works are primarily an ode to earth, with clay the medium to explore the interplay between nature and the human condition.

Liz has participated in several exhibitions over the years in both South Africa and Australia. She has received recognition and several awards, and has been commissioned to do and run several projects for public works and community upliftment projects.

After arriving in Australia, it took some time before Liz was able to pursue her passion once more. In 2021 she was able to start a studio and has immersed herself in her work, also offering classes and workshops. Clay is her primary medium of expression, with its organic malleability and responsiveness to her ideas. Her unique hand-built pieces are bold and highly expressive—often simple shapes covered in vibrant colour, or detailed textures, patterns and symbols. Layers of underglazes, stains, glazes and lustres are built to create a feeling of decorative excess reflecting layers of Australian environment and lives. Liz captures moments, striving to be evocative, and encouraging people to look below the surface and relate to the story being told.

Liz RANGER-CRAVEN

Turning a Blind Eye 2024

Hand-built stoneware

Underglazes, oxides, and a splash of glaze

53 x 90 x 63 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

One of the most damaging parts of our society is environmental ignorance, often wilfully—‘turning a blind eye’ and choosing to ignore and avoid facing facts. I am compelled to create work in response to the realities of our natural environment, as our world is grappling with many ecological challenges. Climate change, habitat destruction, and unsustainable resource exploitation all have a huge impact on our natural world. I depict the fragility and beauty of nature, using a bird in this piece as its representation; and how we are ultimately responsible for nature’s ongoing decline, but could likewise be responsible for any success in its protection. I hope to encourage a relationship and connection between the natural world and ourselves, and to instigate conversation. This is only possible with increased awareness.

Three figures display the birds like medals pinned to the chest, slowly losing all sign of life. Humans still exploit nature to better their own circumstance and increase standing in our modern world, where greater financial gain is seen as the perpetual goal. The figures gradually grow in stature as the impact on nature becomes more evident.

Tess RAPA

Dusk 2022

Midfire black clay

Underglaze

36 x 100 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Steve Cummings

About the artwork

A road trip I took from Cairns (Qld) to Katoomba (NSW), a distance of 2,687 kilometres, was the inspiration for the ‘Dusk’ series of ceramic sculptures. Every day on this journey, I experienced dusk in a new location. Travelling suspends us from our daily routine, and creates a capsule of time to reflect on the connections, and disconnects, of human relationships. That road trip, ‘down’ the east coast of Australia included Agnes Waters and 1770, which are two rare locations on the east coast of Australia where sunsets over saltwater can be seen.

The materiality of fine black clay has a plasticity and responsiveness to the hand when hand-building and wheel-forming techniques are combined. Silhouettes of east coast mangroves at sunset inspired the carving into the ‘skin’ of the black clay body, signifying the scars we all carry.

About the artist

Tess Rapa lives on Dharug and Gundungurra Country in the Blue Mountains, NSW. She is passionate about studying the materiality of clay in developing her practice. Her art practice has evolved from a focus on painting and drawing into exploring the materiality of clay to discover an intuitive expression in sculpture. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Hons), Master of Convergent Media from UWS; a Master of Teaching (Hons) from the University of Sydney; and a Diploma in Ceramics from TAFE Hornsby.

The artist comments:

Connectedness, relationship, and belonging are the main themes throughout my studio practice. The making and carving process lets me engage in deep listening, quietening my mind, being present and finding hope once more. It is easy to get caught in reflecting on the past and forget to live in the present.

Tess was the recipient of the Sadie Foster Prize 2022.

Fran ROMANO

Memento Mori III 2022

Midfire and stoneware clays, repurposed timber pelmet as shelf

Clear glaze, talc glazes, oxides

14 x 107 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Andrew Sikorski - Art Atelier Photography

About the artwork

This wall-mounted arrangement, reminiscent of an archaeological site, offers a moment of contemplation. By providing a link to the past, it grounds us in the present.

With reference to the vanitas tradition of the still life genre, Memento Mori III is a reminder both of our own mortality and the continuity of things.

Inspired by texture and patina, my work is also informed by my Southern Italian heritage. In particular, I explore death rituals and shrine culture, combining found and hand-made objects.

About the artist

A graduate of the Australian National University School of Art (2013), Fran Romano works from a home studio in inner-city Canberra, Australia. Design work and community teaching with the Canberra Potters complement her art-making. With a focus on process-driven making, and drawing on her background as a social worker, she runs experiential/ well-being workshops.

In 2023, Fran was awarded a Highly Commended in the Art Edit Self-Represented Artist Award and featured in that magazine. She has been a finalist in the Goulburn Art Award (2022); the Little Things Art Prize (2018); and the Palliative Care Art Prize (2017). In 2019, she was awarded first place for 3D Art in the Foot Square – Small Pieces Competition (Brisbane).

She has recently returned from undertaking a fiveweek residency with c.r.e.t.a. Rome, Italy, and she is excited to have developed new making methods to apply to her studio practice.

Angie RUSSI

Windswept 2023

Porcelain

Satin white glaze

12 x 23 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Serana Hunt-Hughes

About the artwork

Windswept is one of a series of works inspired by a chance encounter with a mass death of birds on a beach, and finding beauty in their decay and the process of transformation. This work speaks of the survival of the feathers as blown by the wind. Some adhere to surrounding structures as beautiful accessories, while others whirl into the air, populating the space between earth and sky.

About the artist

Angie Russi is a ceramic artist who lives and works from her studio in the small town of Rushworth, located in central Victoria.

Angie graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor in Fine Arts Ceramics in 1981 and completed a Master’s in Community Cultural Development at Victorian College of Arts in 2006. In 2021, Angie returned to full-time studio practice after almost 20 years of balancing arts management and ceramic practice. Reigniting her passion for clay and her love of birds, she consistently returns to the use of winged creatures as muse and metaphor in an ongoing exploration of the natural world and all they have to teach us as humans.

Leonie RYAN

Art of Reading 2024

White raku clay

Black glaze, hand-written text, and white Shino wash

8 x 31 x 20.5 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Serana Hunt-Hughes

About the artwork

Art of Reading has two aspects. It is both an art object made from ceramics and a philosophical investigation regarding the phenomenology of reading, which requires a viewer to read it. In this situation, the viewer observes the ceramic art object that is represented as a book; however, by the act of reading the text on the art object, another aspect occurs through the written language. Between the author’s composition of words and personal meaning, realms infinitely more elastic than the world of objective reality merge. Both art and the act of reading offers a similar space within ourselves to expand on the experience of being human. Leonie Ryan’s focus on material handling is a process by which she can explore what and how clay can teach her. Tuning in to sensations between hands and clay, a synergy occurs through texture, temperature, moisture, elasticity, and the soft aroma of petrichor.

About the artist

Leonie Ryan was born in Naarm/Melbourne. At age six, she moved to Gippsland. She has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Fine Art, and in 2008, she was honoured to receive Artistic Merit Award from Monash University. The previous year, she participated in the group exhibition Gippsland, and received a Regional Arts Victoria Award.

Leonie has held eight solo exhibitions and over 40 group exhibitions in regional galleries and Melbourne-based ARIs. In 2007, she was an initiator and participant in a group exhibition touring to Arts & Cultural Centre, Jiu Jiang, China. For many years, Leonie casually practised making ceramics; however, since 2017 it has become her primary focus. She also works across installation art, sensory art, sculpture, photography, collage and performance. Leonie’s art studio is based at Shannonvale near Mossman, Queensland. She also has a studio in Gippsland, Victoria, where she resides during the summer months.

Bridget

SAVILLE

A Force of Attraction 2024

Stoneware clay

High manganese metallic glaze

8.4 x 32 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Connor Patterson

About the artwork

A Force of Attraction, which encompasses two ceramic objects that sit in conversation, explores the invisible force of gravity. Together, the forms capture and celebrate the relational qualities of this intrinsic force. Each piece, with its own mass, pulls towards the other, mirroring our relationship to earth.

The pieces’ folds and contours are a direct expression of clay’s transmutability when gravity is acted upon it. Working with extruded forms, the clay is dropped from hand height. In a moment of spontaneous movement, the pull of the Earth’s mass is translated into a unique form.

The process allows the contradiction of predictability and unpredictability to occur simultaneously. Inevitably, the material will fall, but what remains unpredictable is the form it will take upon meeting the Earth’s surface.

About the artist

Bridget Saville is an emerging ceramic artist living and working in Tarndanya, on Kaurna Country. She has been working with clay since 2021 and is currently undertaking the Ceramic Associate program at JamFactory, Adelaide.

Bridget developed her interest for crafting conceptual objects while studying a Bachelor of Interior Design at RMIT University (2020, First Class Honours). Her artistic approach delves into the intrinsic responsive qualities of clay, focusing on implied movements that explore both the physicality of the human form and our internal lived experiences.

With a keen interest in the dynamics of working with clay, Bridget is particularly fascinated by the forms that emerge through process. Proficient in both wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques, she has more recently enjoyed developing tools and jigs to further test and stretch the limits of the material.

Lotte SCHWERDTFEGER

Sympoiesis

2024

High-fired terracotta clay with reactive slips and glazes

High calcium, layered matte glazes

23 x 44 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Sympoiesis is a set of three vessels, imagined as lost relics recovered from the sea.

Referring to systems of collaborative creation, Sympoiesis is a term useful in describing ecologies that can have spontaneous and surprising adaptations.

Generated by my ecological anxiety surrounding biodiversity and habitat loss, Sympoiesis aims to mimic and memorialise the delicate colours and textures of corals, sponges and bio-films of the ocean.

The familiar vase forms, inspired by Classical pottery typologies, each support surfaces of layered reactive slips and glazes. The purposefully overfired terracotta clay body allowed each vessel to warp and slump during firing to emphasise its organic structure. Each vessel in the set demonstrates a progression of growth towards complexity, adding further surface texture through sprig moulded, carved and sculpted biological structures. Sympoiesis is a celebration of our complex non-human living world and a memento to environments we have lost.

About the artist

Lotte Schwerdtfeger’s practice is driven by a passion for the alchemy of ceramics and the inherent connections to land and histories. Her work expresses an instinctive process of play and passion for the medium. She primarily hand builds both functional and sculptural works, using coiling and pinching, and combines tendrils of research spanning historical ceramic traditions.

Often beginning with Classical vessels, ceramic archetypes are expanded by the artist’s experimental approach to clay bodies and glazed surfaces.

References to natural forms and processes, utilitarian objects, and cultural artefacts arise from Lotte’s interest in anthropology, symbolism, and ritual.

Lotte is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and is currently a Ceramics Associate at Jam Factory, Adelaide. She regularly works on commissions, collaborative projects and gallery exhibitions.

Roshni SENAPATI

For Those Who Walked Before Me 2024

Porcelain and repurposed silk thread and cloth

White satin glaze

35 x 69 x 27 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Tony Webdale

About the artwork

I take my thread for a walk up and down, round and around. My hand and thread meander on the surface and through the memory-pole, filling it with lines reminiscent of the weave of the saris from which the silk thread is drawn. It pays homage to the unknown hands that created the cloth. It links me to women in my family who wound the saris around their body. It connects me to my mother, who cherished the saris before bequeathing them to me. I give them a new purpose.

Each thread line holds memories of people and place. Within its fibres reside narratives of those whom I belong to and where I come from. The porcelain and thread pillars honour my Elders and lineage and serve as memory-keepers of past times. Those Who Walked Before Me is a meditation on ancestral history and cultural connection.

About the artist

Roshni Senapati is a ceramic artist based in Meanjin/ Brisbane. Working with clay and thread, her work explores ideas of memory and cultural connection. She makes porcelain sculptural vessels that include knotted and wound silk threads and cloth drawn from old family saris to explore personal narratives through the ceramic form, as well as the histories enmeshed in the silk fibres.

Born in India, Roshni has called Australia home for 40 years. Following a teaching career, she is now focusing on a studio-led exploration of sculptural vessels, working from her home studio.

Roshni was awarded the Little Things Art Prize in 2022. The same year she was a finalist in the North Queensland Ceramic Awards; and was a finalist in the Ceramic Arts Queensland Award for Ceramic Excellence in 2021 and 2023. She features in the book Earth and Fire, published by Thames and Hudson in 2023. Her work has been exhibited in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and London.

Arun SHARMA

Childhood 2024 White stoneware

Shino style glaze

30 x 26 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Childhood is composed of a cast of my son’s torso and a wheel-thrown vessel in the shape of an hourglass. I have recently been thinking a lot about time, and the way we experience it in a linear manner. I know time is precious, so looking at my son, my family, and myself as an artist, I try to take heart and continue to move forward.

About the artist

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

Arun has lived and worked as an artist in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and the UK, where he was awarded a US–UK Fulbright grant to research the fragmented figure at the National Center 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, US and Australia. Arun Sharma now lives in Sydney and, while continuing to exhibit his artwork nationally and internationally, owns and operates a ceramic school.

Mineko SHIMAZAWA

Frost Flowers 2024

Porcelain

Crystalline glaze

3.5 x 26 x 21 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

My hometown in Japan boasts the lowest temperature of -41°C, recorded in January 1902. I remember growing up there that when the night was very cold, breathtakingly beautiful frost flowers formed on house windows. As a small kid, I always rushed to the windows first thing in the morning to greet them. To me, it looked like they were sent from heaven. On the way to school, I could see the steam from the river frozen in the air; it formed ice crystals reflecting sunlight, and was called diamond dust. The beauty of those crystals always put me in delightful awe of nature.

As an adult, I still long for those magical formations of frost flowers and dazzling diamond dust over the river. My vessel depicts frost flowers drifting down in the morning light. Neodymium oxide added in the glaze helps the colour shift between pale purple and bluish-white, depending on the light source, as does the morning sky.

About the artist

Japanese-born Mineko Shimazawa is a translatorturned-ceramist based in Sydney. Originally trained in Linguistics, she was involved in developing machine translation systems and later became a translator herself. Her journey on ceramics started only after retiring from work.

She completed the Advanced Diploma in Ceramics course at Hornsby TAFE in Sydney in 2022 following her completion of the Diploma in Ceramics course at the same institute.

Mineko SHIMAZAWA

Let There Be Light 2024

Porcelain

Crystalline glaze

4 x 26 x 26 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

In cold winter days, the thing I most long for is warm sunlight.

A crystalline glaze can fill otherwise plain ceramic surface with streams of light. A small addition of titanium dioxide into the glaze transformed a white porcelain surface into a brilliant sea of golden halos. This vessel was fired to 1250°C and went through soakings at several temperatures for the total of 16 hours. The ratios of each glaze ingredient are critical. The timing of firing at each temperature stage must be exact to grow crystals. The gentle curves of the vessel represent a fragment of the sky drifting down to earth carrying pieces of light sources.

When a vessel comes out of the kiln flooded with coruscating streams of light, I feel as if I am a little creator of light.

About the artist

Mineko Shimazawa’s interest as a ceramist lies in creating vessels that can take people beyond the vessel itself. She wants her ceramic pieces to be portals that lead people to a passage for certain emotions and feelings. When people look at windows, they are not looking at the windows but the scenery spreading outside the windows. She aims for her ceramic pieces to do the same and to make people see what she saw and feel what she felt over her vessels.

Although Mineko never believed that she could be an artist, her love of nature and desire to express unseeable feelings in tangible forms urges her to build ceramic vessels. Now, she regards herself as a translator between nature and ceramics. She tries to reproduce the sky colours, the feel of wind, and the glory of blossoms in her vessels.

Alexandra STANDEN

Everyday Balloon 2024

Terracotta

Majolica glaze and gold lustre

89 x 55 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Hewson

About the artwork

Unlike mass-produced vessels, I have elevated the imperfections of hand-made works by using quality Italian Majolica glazes and 24-carat gold. Historically, gold and lusterware come from the decorative technique invented by Abbasid potters of the Islamic civilisation, in modern-day Iraq, in the ninth century. It was long been believed that these techniques were true alchemy, as the process involved using leadbased glazes, silver, and copper paint to achieve the lustrous, reflective, and rich golden effect without using any gold at all.

The techniques were carefully guarded secrets that travelled with artists from their origins in Iraq to Egypt, then onto Syria and Persia, finally making their way to Europe, where houses were adorned in lustrous tiles, and tables were covered in reflective vessels to impress guests.

I have imbued these large-scale, hand-built ceramic works with this historical and secretive magic, elevating and revering the history of shiny objects.

About the artist

Alexandra Standen’s work explores relationships to both physical and emotional spaces. Her work focuses on the subjective, cultural, and ideological meanings of material objects, examining the way objects and their relationships act as metaphors for human behaviour. Her practice speaks to the process of making work in ceramic and a sense of unease that comes with engaging with a medium that holds a functional quality yet has a connotation of being fragile or precarious in nature. The repetitive gesture of ‘pinching’ hand-built forms is as much conceptual as it is an act of realisation.

In 2019 Alexandra was the recipient of the Cité Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris and undertook self-guided research in Istanbul and Tel Aviv. Winner of the Sidney Myer Award for Ceramics, Shepparton Art Museum (2012), Alexandra was a finalist in awards including the Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, Gold Coast Ceramic Award and the Wynne Prize.

Neridah STOCKLEY

Blue Shadow 2024

Stoneware clay

Underglaze and glaze

25 x 10 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

My work is often concerned with landscape and the domestic environment. This architectural form is layered with shadows, cloud, buildings, trees and water tanks. I enjoy the tension between working across two- and three-dimensional objects. For me, clay can operate as a support such as paper—a surface on which to apply motifs and marks.

About the artist

NSW-born Neridah Stockley trained at the National Art School in Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Since then, Neridah has held 28 solo exhibitions and has exhibited in many art prizes, including the Gurguis New Art Prize, The Glover Prize, Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, The Alice Prize and Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award. Neridah was the recipient of the inaugural Qantas Encouragement of Contemporary Award for the Northern Territory in 2007.

Her work is held in numerous collections, including Macquarie Group, Artbank, Parliament House, Newcastle Art Gallery, Charles Darwin University, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Fremantle Arts Centre, and The Australia Club. In 2014, the Charles Darwin University Art Gallery curated Neridah Stockley: A Retrospective, and in 2020 the University Gallery at the Newcastle University curated the survey exhibition Neridah Stockley: A Secular View, which toured nationally.

Simon SUCKLING

Large Bowl with Noisy Miner and Grevillia 2023

Porcelain

Clear glaze with hand-printed silk screen onglaze decal

9 x 36 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) is one of the most successful and divisive bird species in our suburbs. The clearing of native vegetation for lawn has created large open spaces ideally suited to this bird. Noisy miners form mobs, dive-bomb other birds, and force them out while hogging nesting spots and food sources. Other birds, especially smaller and less aggressive species, are finding it harder and harder to survive and are declining. Noisy miners are a large omnivorous honey eater, and they seek out Australian native flowering plants such as Grevillia and Callistemon.

About the artist

Simon Suckling is a second-generation ceramic artist and the proprietor of Bluehouse Porcelain studio in Bardon, Meanjin/Brisbane. Simon’s mother was a potter and art teacher and introduced the family to clay through her own practice in the 1970s and 1980s. Simon has been a practising artist for 35 years.

Simon is a graduate of the Visual Arts program at University of Southern Queensland and undertook a Master’s degree in Ceramic Design at Monash University in Melbourne. While living in Melbourne, Simon worked in a commercial pottery, producing porcelain tableware for retail and the restaurant and catering industry.

His current body of work explores the natural environment in and around his inner-city home and studio in Bardon. It is a place where the natural world collides with the built forms of the city infrastructure, where plants and animals compete for survival.

Tom SUMMERS

Steiner Monument 2023

Stained porcelain

Unglazed

29 x 18 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

As with much of my ceramic practice to date, this piece references recognisable architectural features and motifs, but sits outside of known markers of time and place, simultaneously futuristic and relic-like in an expression of an unreachable utopian vision. The way the ceramic slabs are placed to appear almost like they are floating in space hints further at this surrealistic take on the everyday.

Technically, this piece also represents a commencement with working with porcelain in my practice, as the luminosity and whiteness of this type of clay better showcases the vibrant stains that have become synonymous with my work, this time showcasing a lurid, vivid orange.

About the artist

Tom Summers is a queer ceramic artist and product designer from Meanjin/Brisbane, who is currently based in Tarndanya/Adelaide. Originally starting his design career and education in fashion design, Tom found himself yearning for a stronger and deeper connection with the objects around us, and one that felt less disposable. After experimenting in several mediums, he found a real affinity with slab building with clay, since the cutting out of a flat slab and then making it into a 3D shape involves a lot of the same thinking as pattern making clothes.

Recently completing the prestigious JamFactory Associate Program in ceramics in 2023, his distinctive hand-built ceramic vessels are currently stocked in selected specialty boutiques across Australia, and have appeared in several gallery exhibitions.

Tom has also recently received a grant from Arts SA to complete a six-week artist’s residency in Jingdezhen, China.

Philippa TAYLOR

In the Light & Dark, I See You 2023

Midfire and porcelain clay

Unglazed

18 x 28 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

A pair of wheel-thrown midfire pots are pushed, altered into forms with brutal lines. Each is decorated with sprigs in porcelain and black clays, hand carved into the follicles of the indigenous plant Banksia integrifolia.

They act as a motif, textile like, appliquèd to a contrasting clay body.

The twin vessels stand grounded on a wide sculptural foot with walls of undulating curves; these folds create intimate spaces to embed the decorative elements too.

The bold graphic interplay between light and dark strikes an interesting balance, a playful contemporary approach to depict a banksia, whose flowering cycle I observe on my coastal walks.

The pots are in a state of metamorphosis, blooming from seed to flower to fruit.

Change is the only constant; nature teaches us that.

About the artist

British-born Australian studio potter Philippa Taylor is based in Naarm/Melbourne. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at Monash University in 1997.

Early in her career, Philippa’s work was recognised, receiving a Highly Commended in 1996 at the Walkers Award in Melbourne. Later, her postgraduate work was acquired by Dame Elizabeth Murdoch.

Through research, she developed a decorative technique to adorn her works based on a contemporary take on Wedgwood Jasperware. Her choice of sprigs are indigenous flora, namely the Banksia integrifolia.

Philippa’s work has sold nationally and internationally, and she has been a finalist in multiple award shows, notably the Clunes Ceramic Award in 2017, 2019, and 2022. Her work was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ballarat in 2019.

Currently, she is working on a body of work that combines her interest in architecture and decorative elements, a series titled ‘Brutanicals’.

Wendy THURGATE

Untitled 2024

Midfire clay

Matte black midfire glaze

approx. 39 x 100 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Robin Hearfield

About the artwork

This installation came about from a desire to explore the making of a group of objects that display strong similarities in basic form but have both subtle and exaggerated differences. While each piece must be able to stand alone, it must also stand harmoniously within the group. Throwing each pot on the wheel either in one piece or two pieces allowed for fast and fluid construction and the exploitation of the malleable nature of the clay. Some pieces are made with a more precise consideration, while others are deliberately yet gently off-centre in order to create movement within the group, to enhance the negative space, and to create visual interest for the viewer.

About the artist

Born in Townsville, Wendy Thurgate lives and works in Sydney. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Ceramics, National Art School, Sydney, and an Assoc. Diploma of Fine Arts, Ceramics, St George TAFE, Sydney. She’s received a number of prizes and awards, among them the Ceramics Art and Perception Award and Mura Clay Gallery Award (both 2005) and Highly Commended, Nth Qld Ceramics Prize (2018). Her work has appeared in many exhibitions, and is held in private collections in France, Japan and Australia. It has appeared in several publications, including the Journal of Australian Ceramics (2018).

Career highlights include throwing large platters for Australian artist John Olsen for his retrospective The You Beaut Country (2016), and throwing vessels for Australian artist Ann Thomson’s exhibition Painting, Works on Paper, Ceramics (2018).

Susan TRIMBLE

A Charm of the Double-Barred Finches 2024

Keane’s ‘White Raku’ and ‘Dark Matter’ midfire clays

Clear glaze and gold lustre

27 x 20 x 18 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Double-barred finches gather on an abstract organic hollow and debate the strange markings on the outside of the vessel. A bird’s-eye view of the vessel suggests an exotic succulent flower while the texture and colour of the vessel walls suggest it may be wood. It is deliberately obscure.

The gold beaks highlight the power of the uttered word and the markings on the outside are rune-like, hinting at a touch of magic—or a charm, if you like.

The profile of the work shapeshifts as viewers move around the piece, becoming almost unrecognisable when viewed from the back or 90° side view.

This work comments on how we interact, interpret and make sense of situations based on the messages we receive and the influence of the company we keep. It recognises that depending on the perspective, the same scenario can be seen in an utterly different light.

About the artist

Susan Trimble is a self-taught emerging ceramic artist based in Meanjin/Brisbane, who loves working in clay to create artwork that delights people. Previously a graphic designer, Susan discovered the joy of making with clay in 2020. She says:

There is something ancient and intuitive about working with earth and the transformative alchemy of heat and chemical reactions. The designs of my sculptural vessels are rooted in the natural world and based on keen observation and my love for native Australian flora and fauna. Hand building, painting, and mark making is my preferred process. To my mind, a vessel doesn’t have to hold or do something to be useful or worthy. It’s equally valid to simply be beautiful, interesting to look at, or thought-provoking.

Susan has participated in a number of group exhibitions and art awards, and is looking forward to what the future holds.

Fenja T. RINGL

Spare Wings 2024

Midfire porcelain, framed in repurposed fence palings

Unglazed, underglaze wash

32 x 25 x 5 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

We expect a lot from the natural world: nourishment, shelter, clean air—even tranquillity, when called for. At the same time, we count upon ecosystems and habitats to heal themselves when damaged. Where does nature store its ‘spare parts’? Are we coming to the point where those reserves are too depleted or fragmented for the natural world to recover from ongoing destruction? This set of rosella wings, created by embossing a three-dimensionally carved linocut, is representative of our unsustainable discard-and-replace culture.

About the artist

Fenja T. Ringl is a printmaker whose work focuses on the patterns and details found in Australia’s fascinating nature and ecosystems. She creates handprinted artworks on paper, and also enjoys printing on clay to create unique functional and ornate pieces. Fenja made the leap from hobby artist to full-time printmaker in 2020, inspired by years of travel and work as an archaeologist and palaeo-ecologist across Australia’s diverse landscapes. Fenja teaches printmaking through environmental art education centre NatureArt Lab, and her work has received several awards, including the Gallery of Small Things Professional Development Award (2022) and First Prize in Printmaking, Artists Society of Canberra (2023).

Tania VERDEZ

Wunderkammer Woman 2024 Stoneware clay, engobes, glazes Pearl, crackle, volcanic and ash 38 x 30 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Wunderkammer Woman is a personal exploration of the way stories make up our lives. As someone who has often felt ‘separate from’ and ‘other’ due to my neurodiversity, I have spent much of my life trying to understand other humans and myself in relation to them through story. The deep, abiding traumas and adversities I faced in my childhood have formed and informed my inheritance and legacy to dissect and integrate these curiosities—to sculpt myself a beautiful life despite myself.

Wunderkammer Woman is a repository of stories. She contains, catalogues, and displays these traumas, loves and joys. She sifts them and examines them one by one, sorting, decoding and editing until finally she presents them to the world in a form she understands.

Our stories are everything and everything is a story.

About the artist

Tania Verdez is a neurodiverse New Zealand–born ceramic artist, who has travelled and lived all over Australia and the world, learning and growing her skills, and developing her voice through her love of clay. She now calls Far North Queensland home, and from her studio in Cairns she is exploring both her interior landscape and her awe of our magnificent natural environment through sculpture. She loves to weave together these two worlds with the addition of surrealist and whimsical elements. References to her turbulent childhood in small town New Zealand and her journey with mental health can also be found in her work. She has appeared on ABC’s Gardening Australia, and exhibited her work in group shows in both Victoria and Queensland.

Caroline WALKER-GRIME

Twenty-Nine Pounds 2024

Porcelain clay, photographic decal

Stoneware glaze

12 x 80 x 80 cm overall

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Perrin Clarke

About the artwork

Made from 29 pounds of clay, this group of urns is the last in the series I have made about the sad process of sorting through my mother’s effects after her death.

Among her papers, I found a letter from my father’s solicitor to my mother as they divorced, when I was a small child in the 1960s. In it, he disputed the 29 pounds per month asked for in child support.

The baby photo is the one my father gave to me when I last saw him at his subsequent family home. He said: “Take this, the family won’t want it.”

This is a tribute to all the inconvenient children of first marriages.

About the artist

Caroline Walker-Grime achieved a Master’s in Fine Art (Printmaking) in the UK, and has been making pottery for 20 years. After moving to Australia, she has exhibited in group and solo shows in Adelaide, Canberra and Cairns. She has been a finalist in previous North Queensland and Gold Coast ceramic awards. Selected commissions include prop pottery for Warner Brothers Mortal Kombat and Footprints for Port Adelaide Council.

Caroline currently lives, creates and teaches in Far North Queensland, where the rich and sometimes tempestuous surroundings inspire her work. As well as exhibition pieces, she makes and sells her domestic ware at markets in Port Douglas and Cairns.

Steph WALLACE

Eruption Grouping 2024

Site-specific clay

Slips, oxides, glazes, gold lustre

20 x 70 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Eruption Grouping responds to the landscape of Wadawurrung Country in Ballarat, formed through ancient volcanic action and hollowed by centuries of gold extraction. Steph Wallace seeks to explore the geological and colonial history of this land, forever altered both in its physical essence and cultural tapestry. The work is created from clay harvested directly from the earth surrounding the artist’s studio in a sustainable practice. A variety of slips, glazes, oxides, gold lustre are applied to the surfaces.

About the artist

Steph Wallace’s work has been exhibited across Australia, including the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Craft Victoria and Manly Art Museum and Gallery. She is an ambassador for the UNESCO Creative Cities network and has works in public art collections, including Federation University, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, and The Centre for Rare Trades and Lost Arts.

Steph has BA in Ceramics from Edinburgh College of Art and studied at Leeds Arts University in the UK. She has lectured at Federation University in the fields of design and innovation and also ceramics. She has been a craft correspondent for ABC Radio.

Her work has been featured in several prestigious publications, including The Washington Post, Vogue Living and Journal of Australian Ceramics.

Larissa WARREN

Sorbet Dreams 2024

Stained porcelain with wild clay inclusions

No glaze; all colours are from stains or natural clays

7.5 x 32 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

Sorbet Dreams is a journey back to my childhood, growing up on the Gold Coast in the 1980s. It recalls cruising past the Pink Poodle motel on our bikes, wearing hyper-colour t-shirts and taking evening walks with ice-creams in hand. From these old memories, I have retraced and located some clay from my past primary school grounds and incorporated this within my design. The work may be wall hung or used as a platter.

About the artist

Larissa Warren is an established ceramicist, researcher and art teacher. She creates from her home studio, a reclaimed underground bunker located on Mount Tamborine, Queensland. Larissa’s ceramic practice is driven by a fascination with the minerals and clays underneath, the layers of the earth, and how we uncover them. Echoing local landscapes and using raw clays found through field studies and the use of archives, she looks to geological metamorphosis and local histories when developing her concepts.

She combines organic textures, patterns, and coloured clays into the surfaces of her ceramic vessels by creating free-formed nerikomi blocks of contrasting wild clays and stained porcelains, which are inlaid into the walls of wheel thrown, slip cast and slab ware forms and vessels.

Ian WHITTAKER

Tall Ship 2 2023

Paper clay, glaze

Midfire clear glaze with overlaid collaged paper and pastel, polyurethane

53 x 41 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

I’ve never been on a tall ship, but they embody for me a sense of the ‘boy’s own adventure’–style books of my childhood. I imagine that sailing across oceans would be terrifying, yet full of joy, new experience and the promise of change.

The tall ships are constructed almost entirely from forms thrown on a wheel, except the masts, which are cut from straight slabs. This is simply a way to generate thin, regular slabs with sail-like forms. The arrangements are accidental, and vary, depending on the success of each previous step.

About the artist

Ian Whittaker is a visual artist and teacher in Gimuy/ Cairns. He currently teaches digital art and animation at Trinity Bay State High School, and ceramic sculpture at TAFE Queensland. He is a member of the James Cook University ‘Founders-in-Residence portfolio’, where he is exploring ways to build human creative capacity in the era of artificial intelligence. He has recently published a book about legendary Kuranda master potter Peter Thompson, and has won awards at the Cairns Melting Pot Ceramics exhibition, including the Michael Healy award and a runner-up Award. He has exhibited at the Court House Gallery, Cairns, the Tanks Art Centre, Kick Arts Cairns, the Cairns Regional Gallery, Crate 59, the MetaHouse (Phnom Penh) and Ootacamund (south India). This is his first time exhibiting in Townsville.

Philomena YEATMAN

Clay Basket 2022

Clay made from Yarrabah Country (base form) and Pandanus from Yarrabah (handle)

Unglazed

42 x 45 cm

Image courtesy the artist. Photo: Simone Arnol

About the artwork

Inspired by a 110-year-old bicornual basket created by our Old People from Yarrabah, my work honours the profound messages of love, resistance, strength, culture, and knowledge embedded within this treasure, now safely kept in the Menmuny Museum at Yarrabah. These elements are the lifeblood of our existence, shaping our worldview and artistic expressions.

Using clay from Yarrabah, pandanus, and lawyer cane, I transform these messages into ceramic forms. My grandmother taught me the intricate art of weaving with pandanus and lawyer cane, and her teachings are deeply rooted in my creations. My pieces mirror the shape and essence of the bicornual basket, with the woven pattern around the neck symbolising the transfer of cultural knowledge, a continuous thread connecting past, present, and future. My work pays homage to the wisdom carried through generations, embodying the legacy of our Old People.

About the artist

Philomena Yeatman, a proud Gunggandji woman, was born in Gimuy/Cairns and spent her formative years immersed in the vibrant culture of the Yarrabah community.

Her journey in the arts commenced in 1991 at the age of 31, marking the inception of a remarkable career that would see her explore various mediums of creative expression.

Renowned for her masterful weaving skills, Philomena draws upon the wealth of traditional knowledge passed down through generations, particularly from her grandmother. Under her guidance, Philomena learned the intricate techniques of crafting baskets and mats using locally sourced materials, such as pandanus and cabbage palm, intricately dyed with natural pigments sourced from Country.

With each creation, Philomena channels her passion for preserving traditional knowledge, ensuring that the art of weaving remains not just a skill but also a profound connection to the land, culture and identity.

Ruby Yu-Lu YEH Of Motherhood 2024 Stoneware

Iron oxide calligraphy; sprayed glaze

70 x 45 x 46 cm

Image courtesy the artist

About the artwork

This work relates to my thoughts surrounding motherhood, my mother, the women I’ve met, and my friends who became mothers. I reflected on the societal expectations of women, especially as I find myself in my mid-30s surrounded by both seasoned and new mothers. I contemplated the physical and emotional strength of my mother, giving birth to my premature brother alone in a foreign country. I thought about the challenges of infertility, IVF, pregnancy, and miscarriage.

These reflections stirred a profound emotional response within me. Through an open call for anonymous words from other people’s contemplations on the topic, I found solace in their words as I wrote them onto my vessel. This vessel is a tribute to all the women I have encountered, whether childless or not, contemplating motherhood, struggling to conceive, or dealing with societal expectations. I want them to read the words, contribute their own stories, and create a sense of togetherness.

About the artist

Ruby Yu-Lu Yeh is a Taiwanese–Australian ceramic artist in Meanjin/Brisbane. She uses wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques to create and develop works that can be sculptural and/or functional. Ruby’s current exploration focuses on creating larger vessels as an internal dialogue between her Eastern upbringing and Western education. Ruby has exhibited in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and during her residency in Japan. She was a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize (2021 and 2023) and a finalist with a Highly Commended Award in The Siliceous Award for Ceramics Excellence (2023).

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