Danielle Thiris
Danielle Thiris — 'Hot Guy' Series - 'Stelios', 2026
Heads, torsos and gestures are borrowed from ancient statues and painted pottery to create hybrid ceramic figures and objects. A contemporary take on the Greek tradition of tamata (small devotional offerings). These works can be kept as offerings to self or given to others in gratitude, for healing, protection, humour, pleasure or as a token of affection.
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Danielle Thiris builds her conjoined ceramic pieces entirely by hand, working with South Australian terracotta clay and using techniques that have been employed for millennia: coiling, pinching, and carving. Collected materials, such as Murray River campfire ash and Wonboyn oyster shells, find their way into her glazes, embedding landscape and history into her surface treatment. Her pieces evoke the past while remaining contemporary, resulting in striking forms that sit somewhere between the ritualistic and the playful. Thiris' work invites contemplation, challenging the distinctions between the historical and modern, functional and sculptural, connection and separation.
Thiris holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the University of South Australia and a Bachelor of Textile Design from RMIT University. Her work has been exhibited at NGV Ian Potter, Craft Victoria, Oigall Projects, and NGV Melbourne Design Week. Three of her pieces are held in the Australian Catholic University’s Art Collection.
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Materials: South Australia terracotta, terrasigillata, pigment, wax, aluminium wire.
Dimensions: 25 x 10 x 9cm