DOMESTIC BLISS: functional works from the collection

Free exhibition

DOMESTIC BLISS: functional works from the collection will now close Sunday 3 January 2021. Continuing the important restoration works in the Gallery during October, we have the opportunity to renew our Gallery walls on the Ground Floor. While we are saddened to close the exhibition prematurely, we are excited to share our newly refurbished Ground Floor Gallery with visitors in February.

This exhibition brings together renowned ceramic artists who adeptly play with the conventions of functional ware, displayed alongside a new generation of contemporary practitioners.

Domestic and functional wares represent many aspects of life; the flower vase for ceremony and remembrance, the platter shared in celebration, and tea bowls representing culturally diverse tradition and customs. The bond of sharing a pot of tea is part of everyday life, it can become a daily ritual and provide a source of nurture and comfort.

Honor Freeman creates deceptive works that mimic 1960s Tupperware and Gwyn Hanssen Pigott’s (1935 – 2013) still lifes take cues from artists such as Giorgio Morandi and Chinese masters. The skill of the Hermannsburg potters transform jars into expansive desert landscapes and a new acquisition to the Newcastle Art Gallery’s collection by Tony Albert marks the problematic 250^th anniversary of Captain Cook.

DOMESTIC BLISS  elevates everyday ceramics as works of art and reveals the artists transnational stories of place and identity. It showcases the breadth of practice in our City’s leading collection of over 900 ceramic works of art ranging from Australian Post War studio to Japanese ceramics.

Honor FREEMAN
Adding glamour to the simplest of snacks  2008
slip-cast porcelain
dimensions variable
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Steven Alward & Mark Wakely 2017
Newcastle Art Gallery collection Courtesy the artist