2017 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award winner

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) have announced Jenny Orchard’s The Imagined Possibility of Unity (2017) as this year’s winner of the biennial Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Art Award (SMFACA), the premier national award for ceramicists with a $50,000 prize acquisition.

Jenny Orchard, The Imagined Possibility of Unity

This year’s judges – Jacqueline Doughty, Curatorial Manager, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne; Jason Smith, Director, Geelong Art Gallery; and Dr Rebecca Coates, Director, Shepparton Art Museum – have praised the artist, her work and her practice;

“Jenny Orchard’s installation is a tour de force that reveals an artist in full command of her medium, and an artist whose work has an unquestionable contemporary relevance.

Orchard has been at the forefront of ceramics as a contemporary medium for more than 40 years. In an outstanding field of five leading contemporary artists working in clay, Orchard’s work is utterly compelling.

Her figures are invested with an exceptional life force that emanates directly from the organic medium of clay. The judges were dazzled by Orchard’s range of expert modelling and glazing techniques. While Orchard’s work has clearly acknowledged references to art and design histories, including the Italian art and design The Memphis Group (1981-87), the judges feel strongly that Orchard’s work transcends all influences and powerfully communicates a singular vision.”

Jenny Orchard with her work Totem, 2017, ceramics, onglazes and steel, 120 x 65 x 60cm. Photograph: Jenni Carter

Jenny Orchard commented on being shortlisted for the 2017 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award in February;

“This show makes it possible for me to bring together aspects of my practice which have been quite scattered over the last decades. I moved my studio home in 2015 and built a “shed” with transparent walls and roof to see the sky, trees and birds in 2016.

I believe optimism is the only way of being in the world. Quantum mechanics and bio-technology are an everyday reality never discussed, and yet our future on the planet depends on our engagement with them, so my work is an attempt to provoke questioning. I choose not to use shock, but to try to express wonder, and a gentle probing or provocation to look at the diversity and connections in the lively world around us.”

Jenny Orchard, The Imagined Possibility of Unity

The 2017 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award exhibition includes work by five contemporary artists Glenn Barkley, Karen Black, Laith McGregor, Jenny Orchard and Yasmin Smith and is currently on display at SAM, Victoria until 13 August, 2017.

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