Ceramics

JO MCLEAN MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: AUCKLAND Jo McLean, born and raised in England, had always known that she wanted to do ‘art’. “As a child I was always making things; drawing, sewing, constructing things out of cardboard and paper...” After enrolling at South Glamorgan Institute, she was initially drawn to fashion and jewellery. However, the tactile nature and immediacy of ceramics won her over. “Playing with clay yielded instant rewards for someone impatient like me…I still think it’s amazing that a person can produce a work of art from what is essentially a lump of mud”. Jo graduated with a BA Hons in Ceramics in 1988. After emigrating to New Zealand in 1994, McLean started a family. In recent years she has returned to ceramics employing a bird theme. She uses terracotta and porcelain, copper oxide to delineate detail, and a variety of porcelain slips for the base colour. After a ‘bisque’ firing, earthern-ware glazes are applied before re-firing. Legs and other wire additions complete the creation. Her birds, bestowed with their own identities, have a buoyancy and childlike whimsy. Many feature a wire springing forth forming a loop and ending in a feathered butterfly. They suggest the imaginative constructions of her childhood and the “lightness of spirit” she observes in the birds around us.

KAIRAVA GULLATZ MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: PIHA Kairava Gullatz is a ceramic artist who is based in West Auckland. Originally from Cologne, Germany she has been working as a studio potter for 20 years in both Germany and New Zealand. After completing her Diploma in Ceramic Design in 1988 she joined a group of fellow students to share a studio and for 9 years they exhibited and sold work at the markets in Cologne. Kairava creates many pieces for the home ranging from tableware and wall pieces to porcelain lamps. Her wall pieces are inspired by New Zealand waterfalls; they are built from slabs and covered with thick layers of slip and glazes. Her porcelain lamps are in gentle shades of white brought about by surface carvings which show the beautiful translucency of the material, the shade and stem of the lamps are inspired by Nikau Palms. All of her shapes are wheel thrown and the form of each lamp is unique. Kairava is passionate about her ceramics and loves sharing her skills; she is a resident studio artist at Corban Estate Arts Centre and also teaches ceramics classes to both adults and children at the Arts Centre.

SUSANNAH BRIDGES MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED GLEN EDEN, WAITAKERE, AUCKLAND Susannah Bridges, well-known for her ceramic “Cylinder Range” of lights and vessels, completed a Bachelor of Design in 1998. Since her first exhibition in 1999, she has gained international recognition and has received a Design Distinction Award from the New York based I.D Magazine. Bridges’ ceramics have been shown from New York to Melbourne and have been acquired by the Auckland Museum, and the Dowse Art Museum. The ‘Cylinder’ ceramic vessels and lights offer a subtle compromise between form and colour. The minimalist shapes and the range of glazes in shades of aqua, green, warm red, black and white create a marriage between contemporary style and functional form. The vessel becomes more than its primary function, becoming a design piece on display in its own right. Alongside her own practice, Susannah has worked within a local Government environment as an Arts Project Assistant, and has taught at Unitec Institute of Technology in the Design School. She also has experience in developing and creating Public Art works.

RENEE BOYD MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: WAITAKERE AUCKLAND Growing up in Laingholm, on the edge of the Waitakere Ranges, Renee Boyd finds her inspiration in the luxurious native bush and the natural black sand of the West coast beaches. After leaving school Renee studied ceramics at Auckland Unitec, she also completed a Diploma in Ceramics from Otago Polytechnic. Now with ten years experience in ceramic production behind her, Renee’s work has an organic quality which comes from the observation and understanding of her environment. Renee’s botanical themed ceramics incorporate textures and colours from the Bush. The leaf shapes, natural streamlined forms, porous textures which complement the glazed clay and the contrasting colours, all relate to New Zealand’s unique landscape. Renee is gaining National recognition with her home ware range, which includes her now famous “leaf dish”. She also produces a range of lighting with a pacific twist, creating graceful rays of light through Tapa patterned openings. Renee’s work has been selected for various exhibitions and she was a recent finalist at New Zealand’s premier ceramic exhibition - The Portage Ceramic Awards.

JO-ANNE RAILL MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: PAPAKURA, AUCKLAND Jo-Anne began working with clay 15 years ago, while training at Teachers College. Since then, she has completed a diploma in Ceramics and now teaches at The Auckland Studio Potters and at UNITEC as well as working on her ceramic creations. Jo-Anne Raill’s ceramic objects have grown from being purely functional forms to becoming three dimensional canvases. Raill has developed an imagery that depicts her observations on today’s society. Her series of robot cups and tumblers presented here reflect on today’s mechanical obsession with speed and direction. Each piece demonstrates her expertise at mixing textures, glaze, colours and incorporating drawings and typography work.

KATHERINE SMYTH MEDIUM: CERAMIC BASED: WELLINGTON Katherine Smyth vessels bring a contemporary twist on Traditional Old-World ceramic. She draws inspiration from the elongated shapes of the Bronze Age incorporating rough textures, rich colours. She is also strongly influenced by ceramic art of the Middle East. After completing a Diploma of Fine Arts – Ceramics at the National Art School in Sydney, Australia Katherine began to travel extensively, especially around the Middle East. In 1993 she worked in Taibeh, a small Jordanian village alongside English Potter Jim Mason. The project was to teach pottery skills to young village women with the aim of reviving some ancient skills. In 2003 Katherine was awarded a Professional Development Grant by the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand to travel back to the Middle East and surrounding regions for further research of Bronze Age pottery and to develop a new body of work in response to her research. A chef before turning to ceramics, the connections between food and clay frequently inspire her work. In 2004, while researching Bronze Age ceramics at the Palestine Exploration Fund in London, Katherine Smyth came across a small Cypriot pot made in the shape of an inverted opium poppy. Subsequently, she began to see organic forms in other pots. On her return to New Zealand she made a juglet in the form of a fig - a fruit that permeates her memories of living in the Middle East. She began making additional juglets based on Middle Eastern produce such as capers, olives and lentils. Another opportunity to combine Art and Food came from working alongside well known chef Peter Gordon to design and produce crockery for his restaurant and for two of Gordon's cookbooks. Katherine eventually returned to New Zealand, and is based in Wellington. She has continued work as a full time potter selling and exhibiting throughout NZ. She has also guest lectured at Auckland Unitec, Massey University in Wellington and The National Art School in Sydney, Australia.

SANG SOOL SHIM & KEUM SUN LEE MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: HENDERSON VALLEY, WAITAKERE AUCKLAND Sang Sool Shim and Keum Sun Lee are a Korean husband and wife team of potters. Originally a Master Taekwon Do martial arts specialist, Sang Sool Shim tutored members of the Korean royal family before turning his hand to the pottery of ancient Korea. Keum Sun Lee is a Doctor in Public Administration and previously worked for the Korean government as a director. She has specific training in the art of Bak ji, a 15th century form of pottery decoration. Working with both 10th century and 15th century forms of Korean pottery, the two have adapted these traditions, adding colours which give a contemporary aspect to their creations. They have also found compatibility between Maori and Korean motifs which they synthesise in their work. Detailed and elaborate, this style of pottery is painstaking and requires considerable, concentration. The two bring their spiritual philosophy to the art of pottery in which life, so often hectic and fleeting, is deliberately slowed down and savoured.

DUNCAN SHEARER MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: HAMILTON Duncan Shearer was first introduced to the art of ceramics when he took lessons at Auckland Studio Potters as a teenager. He later went on to study it at Unitec in 1994, graduating in 1998 with a degree in three dimensional design and a major in ceramics. He has been a studio potter since and specializes in ‘wheel thrown’ work. Duncan is also very active in the ceramic community and was the Co-Director of the Auckland Studio Potters from 2000 to 2006. Duncan has entered many major ceramic competitions/exhibitions in recent years including the prestigious Portage Ceramic Awards. His solo exhibitions have included Lopdell House Gallery in and more recently at Masterworks Gallery. Most of Duncan’s current production is fired in a wood fired soda kiln or occasionally in a salt kiln. Soda firing is like a salt firing and the quiet parts of an Anagama firing all rolled into one; this type of firing produces the most intense blushes on the pots.

GRAHAM AMBROSE MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: WAITAKERE AUCKLAND Before turning his talents to pottery, Graham had won numerous awards for his furniture designs. But when the opportunity arose to swap mediums, he was more than ready to change. “As much as I enjoyed working with wood, I always cherished a passion for clay.” Strongly influenced by the modernist movement, his primary interest is in creating minimalist forms. He is particularly known for his mastery of a bold red glaze that complements these unadorned shapes. His determination to produce aesthetically satisfying pots drives his ambition to control the ceramic process. However Graham has learned that, unlike wood, clay takes on an impetuous life of its own. A master potter once warned him that after taking meticulous notes and maintaining the most stringent precautionary regime, all his pots would be transformed by the whim of the fire gods. To his joy and sometimes his dismay, Graham has found this to be an absolute truth. Graham supplies his work to a select group of galleries within New Zealand and internationally. His works are increasingly being found in private collections in New York, London, Hong Kong, Sweden and Australia. Naturally, thanks to the vagaries of the fire gods, each piece will always be unique.

JOLIE HUTCHINGS MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: AUCKLAND Jolie Hutchings is a self-trained ceramicist who works at Corban Estate Art Centre. Surrounded by passionate practitioners in various fields she became inspired, in 2010, to produce a body of small ceramic wall hangings which explore a 1950s feminine aesthetic. Her nostalgic glazed ceramics of delicately embellished dresses tap into her longstanding interest in modes of femininity and fashion. She later explored these concerns in a range of ceramic cameo brooches. These fuse a cameo tradition which dates from the 18th century, with a range of affectionate silhouettes, including distinguished doggies. Larger hand-painted ceramic works which reference the silhouette portrait, as well as fifties fashion and feminine modes, featured in the CEAC exhibition: The Deep end of the mud hole: Corban Artists work with clay (2011). Pert, playful, wry and a bit cheeky, her stylish female protagonists with idiosyncratic features pay homage to the mysterious and elegant aspect of the ornamental cameo with wit and charm. See also her brooches under Jewellery

STEPHEN BAILEY MEDIUM: CERAMICS BASED: AUCKLAND Stephen Bailey was born and educated in England. After growing up in Leigh, Lancashire, he was later to train in Three Dimensional Design at the local art school. From 1993 he studied Glass, Architectural Glass and Ceramics under Mike Saul at the University of Sunderland. His particular affinity for working with ceramics led him to specialise in this medium. In 2005 Stephen emigrated to New Zealand, attracted by the relaxed lifestyle here. Now a member of Auckland Studio Potters, he takes part in the annual “Fire and Clay” exhibitions as well as use their studio facilities. His simple designs are produced in stoneware clay. He works with the potter’s wheel, plaster molds and uses hand building techniques. Texture, contrast and irregularity characterise his understated earthy and ashy grey works. Tears, gouges, added blobs of clay, asymmetrical shapes and lines, crackles, striations, join marks, and simple stamp indentations, create visual journeys in which the process is the subject. He applies surface imprints during the different stages of the drying process. The objects are fired to 1000 degrees, glazed and then fired to 1300 degrees. Their rough, matt, tactile appeal effortlessly fuses the man-made element, a minimalist approach to design, and the textures and colours of the natural world.