“My current body of work explores my love of nature, embedded in me from childhood memories of family bushwalks where Dad taught me how to navigate with maps. I recently went camping in Tjorita – West MacDonnell Ranges, where I felt a deep sense of peace and connection to the spiritually and culturally significant landscape. Each piece in this series is an observation of my time in the beautiful desert landscape & my aim is to take the viewer on a similar journey. My work displays a unique spontaneity when you handle my pieces you can feel the energy and plasticity of the clay. I embrace the imperfections and my mark making is intuitive and gestural. There are three layers to making my pieces, the initial stage of shaping the clay and carving into the slip, then I begin the mark making with water colour underglazes and the last stage is the pencil work.” – Catherine Allen

Hana Vasak is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist who has been developing her practice working with clay. Her work is created with gestural hand-building techniques, embracing the raw materiality of clay, and balancing pieces with minimal use of glazes. These creations often hold meaning and are attached to a personal narrative. They are made in a slow and considered way, and designed taking visual inspiration from sculpture, nature and ancient pottery.

In dialogue brings together pieces inspired by ancient pottery techniques & nature. These pieces express ideas of connection. Barbotine ware, an ancient decorating technique has been reconceptualised in this body of work. Pieces are adorned with decorative motifs, patterns and designs that incorporate this traditional method and style. Pieces have been reimagined and remade. Experimentation and exploration give way to subtle differences in the vessels undulating shapes and tones. The earth toned clay and the deep blue glaze emulate those tones that can be seen in the skies, the horizons and landscapes of the sun rising and setting. They symbolise ideas of connection. Co existing in harmony with each other as they sit side by side. Created to be in pairs or stand alone, subtly all kindred in the space they occupy. – Hana Vasak

Sierra McManus graduated from the National Art School in 2002 with a major in painting. In 2016, on returning to the Bega Valley with its rich community of potters, her focus shifted to clay and her paintings took a new form. Using underglaze and oxides in place of watercolour and oils, her work now wrapped around her hand built functional and sculptural ceramic pieces. Having previously exhibited with Michael Reid’s Northern Beaches and Murrurundi Galleries, this is her first collection to be shown in the Southern Highlands.

Of the collection of vessels that make up ‘Matter & Memory’, Sierra says; “These vases are built from blended and reclaimed clays, each unique combination yielding its own form. The forms are painted with patterns, in iron oxide and underglaze, interpreted from cloths draped over chairs or hanging or lying about the studio. A vintage bed sheet sent to Phoebe from a friend in Tasmania or a curtain Melody had hung at Violet Hill. The patterns wrap themselves around the vase forms, bend and distort. In the end or where the pattern meets or a seam forms, the motifs confront themselves and a new pattern emerges. Recognition’s sparked – childhood sheets faded and flapping on the hills hoist, some special cloth folded away in a dark cupboard or a once loved shirt worn to exhaustion repurposed as ties to hold a tomato plant to its stake. Holding some common nostalgia, memories unfold invigorating new purpose.” – Sierra McManus 2023

Works by: Adrienne Richards, Beanie Aldrett Fleming, Charlie Komsic, Dani River King, Ebony Russel, Elaine Kim, Elizabeth Lewis, Ellen Bagge, Jan Downes, Jayanto Tan, Joseph Turrin, Kate Robinson, Kelly Brown, Kristen Radge, Rachel McCallum, Rina Bernabei, Sassy Park, Sebastian Conti and Vivienne Hill

Sophie Nolan is a ceramicist based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. By using hand building techniques, Sophie creates one-of-a-kind curvy, sensual sculptural pieces, each shape holding its own presence and personality. The celebration of the human form, focusing on the beauty of our unique imperfections, curves, nuances and individualism is a constant theme running through her work. “I find myself fascinated with the aesthetic of the female form. Beyond the form itself, I see mysterious beauty deeply layered with complexities; strength, power, vulnerability, joy, fear; all unique to the individual.” Sophie’s work has been exhibited in both group and solo shows for galleries such as Michael Reid, Sydney Road Gallery and St Cloche in Sydney and IXL Gallery in Hobart. Sophie supplies interior designers and stylists, high-end interior and fashion stores and has enjoyed collaborations with fashion designers such as Viktoria + Wood.

“We are not apart from nature, we are a part of nature.” Prince Ea

“In this body of work I seek to encourage a dialogue between the natural landscape and the female form. Through this age old relationship between woman and nature, I address the concept of earth as the mother of humanity, a nurturing essential resource.

Through my sculptural pieces, I prompt the viewer to recognise our interconnectedness to the natural world, to remember that we come from nature, we are nature. My organic shapes have intuitive and visible parallels between the curves of meandering rivers, boulders, tree trunks, branches and human trunks, torsos and limbs. Giving the curving trunks and twisting branches of our gum trees anthropomorphic qualities. The feminine shapes and forms highlight the nurturing and healing attributes of women and nature, their resilience and ability for renewal.

I hope my work will evoke the viewer’s own feeling of being in close relationship with our natural environment. A reminder to us all to celebrate, honour, protect and preserve our ‘mother’” – Sophie Nolan

Banner photo credit: Sam Mackie

Fliss Dodd draws upon her life experiences, travel, culture, humour and everything in between as reference points and inspiration. She works closely with textiles, design and photography and her continual fascination for other cultures and travel has enabled her to develop her own unique and distinctive sense of style from which she now draws upon in her latest abstract ceramic pieces.         

She has been a finalist in the following prizes:                                                                                      

National Emerging Art Prize – 2021                                                                                             

Muswellbrook Art Prize 2022

Her pieces are held in private collections in both Australia and overseas.                                      

No two pieces are ever the same.

Rhythms and rituals sees a continuation by ceramicist and sculptor Fliss Dodd into her deepening fascination with other cultures and their reverence of the bull, ceremonies, rituals, costume, textiles and story.

Core to Fliss’s studio practice is a manner of working best described as deeply intimate, where she works with clay and textiles, making small, rhythmic, thoughtful, mediative marks on each piece.

Nature and ceremony are elucidated by Fliss’s considered suggestion of scenarios that play through her mind, manifestly abstract bull forms and anthropomorphic characters with their own particulate and nuanced offerings to time and place.

The artist has subtly introduced textiles, such as the symbolic red thread and its many significances from different cultures and traditions. The Talisman tassels and red thread suggest protection, luck and staying connected to the spiritual world. Similarly, the layering and hand stitching of fabrics is evocative of Indian Kantha quilts and West African Asafo Flags – telling a yet larger story through costume.

“My pieces are all independent characters that unfold as I create, yet they have meaning to one another and have formed their own narrative. They are born from the creative spirit of extraordinary cultures. They hold music, calmness, courage, initiations, connectedness and external rhythms through pattern and mark making. They are sculptures that explore and I find my heart sings when I make each and every one.”

Fliss Dodd (2023).