Un/Natural

Now on view at Michael Reid Murrurundi, Un/Natural by Elizabeth Lewis is the latest exhibition from our Michael Reid Clay platform and a fabulous expression of the Hunter Valley-born, Sydney-based ceramic artist’s distinctive and exuberant style.

Mixing elegance, verve and a dash of irreverence, the artist aims to conjure up feelings of nostalgia through her ceramics practice. Drawing on craft traditions and motifs from antiquity, her work’s wilder flourishes enliven these touchstones and give mythological narratives a contemporary spin.

Un/Natural is a vibrant collection of sculptural objects and stylised vessels, all alive with voluptuous shapes, playfully off-kilter proportions, hand-pinched impressions, and a palette of intensely pigmented pastels with areas of soft gradation.

Each piece’s mix of writhing, organic elements with classical urn-like structures invites a dynamic interplay between history and modernity, wildness and control, nature and culture, and the balance of malleability and hardness inherent to her medium.

Lewis is an alumnus of Kil.n.it Studios and her work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally. Un/Natural arrives at Murrurundi after her successful showing in Kil.n.it’s group exhibition at Michael Reid Northern Beaches in October 2023.