Kirsty Gardiner ~ Ceramic & Fabric Artist, Wairarapa, New Zealand

Kirsty Gardiner ~ Ceramic & Fabric Artist, Wairarapa, New Zealand

Ceramic & fabric artist Kirsty Gardiner has established her studio in rural Wairarapa, in the North Island of New Zealand.

Originally from Clarens, South Africa, Kirsty has lived in New Zealand for the last 15 years with her kiwi husband and three adult children.

"My life is totally involved in the creation of art and is an expression of who I am and my background. Ultimately I am left with no choice but to produce art works - it is really what drives me."

Kirsty works part time as gallery technician at Aratoi Museum of Art and History in Masterton.and has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand since 1997.

Click here to see Kirsty's work.




    

2011 Portage Ceramic Awards
"Merit Award"
2010 Portage Ceramic Awards
"Premier Award"

Last year’s Portage Ceramic Awards judge, Australian ceramic artist Stephen Bowers says Kirsty Gardiner’s work won because it was distinctly imaginative and well realised.

‘It takes a classic vase-shaped urn and then, literally, opens it up, to reveal a strange and delicate inner world. It shows the narrative, illustrative side of clay. It is like a 3D illustration, a miniature model of a scene from surreal, perhaps slightly gothic and unsettling fantasy story. It references dreams, science, museums, laboratories, mummy jars, collections, nature and metamorphosis (amongst other things). It is quite an intriguing piece, like something straight out of an adult fairy tale.’

Click here to see Kirsty's work.


All photographs on this site by kind courtesy of Heather Busch, Featherston

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