• Te Uru in Titirangi is pleased to announce the judge of this year’s Portage Ceramic Awards as Australian ceramic artist Merran Esson.

Well-known Australian ceramic artist Merran Esson has been confirmed as the judge of this year’s Portage Ceramic Awards, Aotearoa’s best-known survey of contemporary ceramic activity. Esson has been working internationally for more than 40 years but this will be her first visit to Aotearoa.

Esson will visit in October and November to select finalists and winners, and present the awards for this prestigious event, organised and hosted each year by Te Uru in Titirangi with support from The Trusts Community Foundation.

“We are delighted to bring Esson to Aotearoa, to introduce her to our own clay community,” says Te Uru Director, Andrew Clifford. “We also look forward to learning more from her extensive experience of exhibiting and teaching internationally. The distinctive ways Esson’s own work responds to and is situated in the landscape will be of great interest to potters in Aotearora.”

The textures and large forms of Esson’s artworks express the contrast between the extremes of country and city, which she says is an influence from her rural childhood. She uses clay and glazes to reference water tanks, silos and corrugated iron, which remind us of the influence of history and place.

Esson recently retired as the Head of Ceramics at The National Art School in Sydney, and is currently Lecturer-in-Charge of ceramics at the Australian Catholic University. As well as many other key Australian institutions, she has spent much time teaching in Scotland, including Glasgow School of Art, Duncan of Jorganstone College of Art, Dundee and Edinburgh College of Art.

Esson has exhibited in The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Galerie Rosenhauer in Germany, Gaffer Gallery in Hong Kong, as well as exhibiting and visiting artist roles in Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Pakistan, Spain and Japan.

“It’s always exciting to get such an invitation to be part of an event like this in another part of the world that I haven’t been to before,” says Esson, who is looking forward to having a closer experience of work from our country. “I have read a lot about New Zealand ceramics whenever it has been profiled in the ceramic magazines.”

Esson will also give presentations in other centres in Aotearoa through a partnership between Te Uru and Ceramics NZ, the national body for professional and recreational potters.

Established in 2001, the Portage Ceramic Awards is a hallmark event for the Aotearoa New Zealand ceramics community, showcasing some of the best work currently being made, and serving as a platform for dialogue about developments in the ceramics field.

Entries for the 2019 Portage Ceramic Awards close on Monday 12 August. The selection of finalist works for the awards is a two-stage process. Approximately sixty works will be chosen by judge Merran Esson 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 Awards’ finalists will be announced on 4 November 2019.

The Premier Award winner and Merit Award winners will be announced at the Awards Night held at Te Uru in Titirangi, Auckland on Thursday 21 November. The finalist works will be exhibited at Te Uru from 22 November 2019 – February 2020. More information about the awards can be found at teuru.org.nz.