Raphy — 'A Home Among the Gum Trees in Catania, Sicily', Mosaic, 2024

‘A Home Among the Gum Trees in Catania, Sicily’ is a ceramic mosaic made from individually hand-carved stoneware tiles, glazed using the traditional majolica method. It draws on ancient Mediterranean mosaic traditions and contemporary ceramic practice. The work shows a towering Australian eucalyptus tree in front of a Sicilian village on the slopes of Mt Etna. 

The image is surreal but grounded in reality, reflecting the widespread planting of eucalypts across the Mediterranean, which has transformed local ecosystems. It symbolises cultural exchange, migration, and colonisation in both regions. Trees have moved, as have people. Inspired by visits to family in Sicily, Raphy observed gum trees lining roads near deserted villages once home to emigrants. Meanwhile, Australia has been enriched by Southern Italian and Mediterranean migrants. The gum tree in this work is both intruder and settler: beautiful, imposing and disruptive.

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Raphy is a Melbourne-based ceramic artist working from his studio in Fitzroy North. His practice explores identity, queerness, and the modern Australian experience through hand-built sculptural forms inspired by his Greek and Sicilian heritage. Recently, he has expanded into mosaic, following a research fellowship investigating traditional techniques in Italy. Blending classical motifs with personal and cultural narratives, his work reimagines heritage crafts through a distinctly local lens. Raphy has exhibited locally and internationally, including in Mexico City and Belgium, and was a three-time finalist in the Midsumma & Australia Post Art Prize.

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Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize 2025

 2 – 30 August

Mud Australia is partnering with Craft to present this year's Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize. Now in its fifth year, the prize is open to all Australian ceramicists and awards innovative, sustainable and emerging talent with a $10,000 fund to support and accelerate their practice. This year, for the first time, the selected finalists are celebrated in a four-week exhibition in Craft's Atrium gallery space.

The SSCP was established in 2020 by Shelley Simpson – Mud Australia’s Founder and Creative Director – and continues to recognise and support emerging and early-career ceramicists working across the spectrum of contemporary practice.

Read more about the exhibition here:

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Material: Stoneware, timber frame

Dimensions: 185 x 95 cm

Please note when purchasing, exhibition works are to be collected when exhibition closes.

Shipping costs may be estimates. Please feel free to contact shop@craft.org.au who will be available to provide an Art Courier quote or shipping costs for larger items.