PORTAGE VETERAN TO JUDGE POTTERY AWARDS
Award-winning ceramic artist John Parker has been confirmed as the judge of this year’s Portage Ceramic Awards, Aotearoa’s best-known survey of contemporary ceramic activity. Parker will select the finalists in October and present the awards for this prestigious event on 23 November, organised and hosted each year by Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery in Titirangi.
As a Waitākere local and active member in Aotearoa’s ceramic community, Parker has a long history with the Portage Ceramic Awards. He has entered many times and was the recipient of the Portage John Green Waitakere Artist Award in 2007.
“I have been accepted, been rejected, been awarded, set up a few exhibitions and hosted judges, so I have experienced it from many sides.”
Parker gained a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at the Royal College of Art in London in 1975. He returned to Aotearoa to take up the post of Director of the Auckland Studio Potters centre in 1977 and was made a life member in 1999. Among the many honours he has received, Parker was awarded a Waitākere City Millenium Medal for services to the community in 2000 and was made a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate in 2010.
There is a distinctive minimalism to Parker’s ceramics. Referencing stark, industrial forms, his works contrast strongly with organic-oriented style which is commonly associated with New Zealand pottery. Although they appear devoid of the maker’s touch, Parker’s works are handmade, with every detail is painstakingly attended to by the artist.
Parker’s work has been exhibited widely in Aotearoa and internationally. Notable solo exhibitions have been held at the Dowse Art Museum, Wellington in 1981 and at Objectspace, Auckland in 2005. In 2002 City Gallery Wellington presented retrospective John Parker: Ceramics, and in 2016 Te Uru staged John Parker: Cause and Effect, surveying the artist’s 50-year career in pottery.
Despite Parker’s long career in pottery, judging the Portage Ceramic Awards comes with its challenges.
“It is a great honour to be given the task of judge, but also a great curse now reducing some 240 entries to 40 finalists.”
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Established in 2001, the Portage Ceramic Awards is a hallmark event for Aotearoa’s ceramics community, showcasing some of the best work currently being made, and serving as a platform for dialogue about developments in the ceramics field.
The selection of finalist works for the 2023 Portage Ceramic Awards awards is a two-stage process. Approximately 40 works will be chosen by judge John Parker from submitted photographs. Shortlisted artists will be invited to send their works to Te Uru for final selection, where the judge will confirm the award winners and works for exhibition.
The 2023 finalists will be announced on 27 October.
The Premier Award winner and Merit Award winners will be announced at the Awards Night held at Te Uru in Titirangi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland on Thursday 23 November.
The finalist works will be exhibited at Te Uru from 24 November 2023 – 3 March 2024. More information about the awards can be found at www.teuru.org.nz/whats-on/portage-ceramic- awards/
PORTAGE CERAMIC AWARDS 2023 EVENTS
Winners announced: 23 November 2023
Judge’s floor talk: 11am, 2 December 2023
Event: Portage Ceramic Awards 2023
When: 24 November 2023 – 3 March 2024
Where: Te Uru, 420 Titirangi Road, Titirangi, Tāmaki Makaurau
Web: teuru.org.nz