IN HER HANDS

Honouring women who shaped, held and endured

In Her Hands is a celebration of women, past and present, who have had the strength to hold space in arenas not previously open to them.

At its centre it is a personal homage to my mother, Anne Dorothea Julia Clarke, one the first women to enter a formalised art education at Bournemouth Art School UK in the 1950s –  stepping into a space that was only just beginning to open, and helping shape the path forward. The ceramic vessels carry a tension between strength and vulnerability. Surfaces are layered, worn and marked – smooth areas sitting alongside raw textures – echoing resilience, tenderness and the traces of labour and time. This work honours a lifelong artist, and many women whose creativity endures alongside the demands of everyday life

SUZY GRANGER

Suzy Granger is a ceramic artist born in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, New Zealand. After more than 30 years in Papaoea, she now lives and works in Pāpāmoa Beach. For the past decade she has created handmade ceramics using different clays, glazes and surface techniques, blending traditional and contemporary approaches. Her vessels are characterised by organic forms and a varied palette, drawing inspiration from the coastal environment surrounding her studio.

She is the founder of Slab Ceramics, a ceramic design studio supplying stockists in New Zealand and internationally and features in publications including Haven magazine and NZ House & Garden.

SUE PEGRUME

BFA Elam School of Art, 1983

This body of work rendered in Oil pastel and Ink is done from my feminist perspective, as a 65-year old post-menopausal woman and mother. It is an internal exploration of love, loss and life, expressed through the use of personal icons. Concerns about climate, society and the environment are interwoven. The thematic colour choice represents vulnerability, strength and passion.