Owen Rye — Set 1, 2021

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Owen Rye (b 1944) from Australia is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. He is known internationally for being at the forefront of the contemporary woodfiring movement. Through his artwork, his writing and his teaching many ceramic artists have been inspired to follow the woodfirer’s path. 

Recently for health reasons he has ceased woodfiring and is working with a variety of glazes on stoneware, and photography and sculpture projects. 

Completing his doctorate in 1970, the first in Australia in the ceramic arts, he worked with archaeologists at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and the Prehistory Department, ANU. From 1980 he taught ceramics in art schools for 25 years, at the Canberra School of Art and then at Monash University Gippsland, there mainly supervising postgraduate students. About 80 of them graduated. 

His teaching has included giving workshops on woodfiring in Australia, the USA and Europe and many public lectures. He has curated woodfire survey exhibitions and he organised the first Australian woodfiring conference in 1986, the precursor to many woodfire conferences and to the Gulgong ceramics events. He retired from art school teaching in 2004. 

He has exhibited in Australia and internationally and is represented in public collections in USA, China, Korea, Germany, France, and many Australian collections including the Australian National Gallery, most state and many regional galleries, and in private collections. His recent artist-in-residency stints were in China, Korea, USA and Australia. 

His extensive writing has been published in many ceramics magazines around the world, and he is author of five books including The Art of Woodfire, published in 2011. The most recent are a memoir, Beyond Short Street, published by Australian Scholarly; and a book on Palestinian potters; both 2021 publications. He has conducted online and in person workshops on writing. 

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As a participant in the inaugural Melbourne Design Fair, Craft Victoria will present a curated collection of the most exciting makers in Australian craft and design. The exhibition will feature 13 makers working across ceramics, textiles, glass and metal, including textile artist Anastasia La Fey, ceramic artist Belle Thierry, textile artist Caro Pattle, ceramic artist Danielle Thiris, furniture and lighting designer Dean Toepfer, artist and experimental designer Jessie French, metalsmith Kenny Yong-Soo, multidisciplinary artist and weaver Lisa Waup, glass artist Misseu, ceramicist Owen Rye, ceramicist Vanessa Lucas, and ceramicist Yoko Ozawa.

Makers will come together in an immersive installation with emerging practitioners featured alongside established designers, showcasing creative ingenuity and material mastery.

Initiated by the NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture and delivered in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation, the fair is a new platform for the craft and design community to bring their collective creative energy together and sell one-off, limited edition pieces in a unique, cultural experience over five days.

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Materials: stoneware, glaze

Dimensions:  approx. 

Contact a Craft consultant shop@craft.org.au for more information or to commission a similar work