For thirty years Sony Manning has been a quietly influential figure in Australian studio ceramics and her delicate and unusual inlay work in porcelain has been much admired.  Harnessing the scope for both the earthy and decorative effects offered by her medium, Sony uses a combination of inlaid slips, plastic clays and metallic oxide pigments which she layers to create pieces of exquisite detail.  When these layers are cut during the production of her forms, the cross-section reveals the unexpected rhythm of the subterranean landscape with figurative elements.  They infer the fissures, tangled roots, riverbeds and watermarks of the ancient area that Sony grew up on at the family dairy farm in north-east Victoria.  Direct artistic influences came later via contact with the landscape paintings of Arthur Boyd.  The grandiose spirit of the Australian high country, even after ravaged by bushfire, is expressed through Sony’s intriguingly delicate porcelain vessels.

Sony Manning completed her diploma of Fine Art (Ceramics) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1978 and has exhibited widely across Australia ever since.  In 2007, she was included in the National Gallery of Australia’s major survey exhibition “The Crafted Object, 1960s - 1980s” and, prior to this, in an exhibition “Australian Art 1940-1990 from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia” which toured to Japan in 1995.  Her work is in major collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Powerhouse Museum.  Internationally, her work has been collected by the Boise Art Museum, Idaho, USA and the Auckland Institute and Museum, New Zealand.