9 - 25 February 2023
about the exhibition
Tasmanian based ceramic artist Kelly Austin’s work celebrates contradictions. Her meditative still life arrangements embody the mastery and devotion of the maker unrestricted by traditions of efficiency and utility, process and practice. This exhibition extends Kelly’s interest in how placement and proximity, harmony and discord can generate numerous propositions and perceptions. A recent residency in Queenstown, Tasmania has inspired the current forms and clay bodies within her work where remnants of the mining industry remain visible upon the surrounding landscape with clays often being sourced directly from local sites. The introduction of glass and block forms are also a new element to her practice, further enhancing moments of distortion and interest. Various opposing concepts manifest in her beautiful and quiet arrangements – the recognisable and the abstract, solid and translucent, heavy and light. Of this work Kelly says, “It is quiet, focused, attentive and nuanced. It creates a space for softness, whilst also exploring the materials of this earth and their transformation: the wetness and heaviness of clay and the solidity of rock faces. It is about being in, and of, landscape: pink sand, tanned earth, a wall of brick red and a whisp of white across the sky.”
Kelly Austin was born in Vancouver, Canada, and currently lives and works in Tasmania. She received her Bachelor of General Fine Arts from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and, in 2016, completed her Masters of Philosophy – Ceramics at the Australian National University. She has also recently completed a Bachelor of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Tasmania. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, most significantly, in 2019, Kelly was the winner of the National Still Life Award at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and she also received the High Commendation award in Victoria’s prestigious Clunes Ceramic Award. This year, her work has been selected as a finalist for the North Queensland Ceramic Awards and Clunes Ceramic Award. Kelly’s work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and Devonport Regional Gallery.
