It was a full house on Saturday 3rd August for the Clay Stories floor talk and artist workshop. Thanks so much to Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery for facilitating the floor talk and the wonderful team at Baluk Arts for allowing us such a fabulous venue for the artist workshop.

I don’t think anyone wanted to go home.

Thanks to the artists from Hermannsburg Judith Pungkarta Inkamala and Hayley Panangka Coulthard for your wisdom and direction. Also greatest thanks to fellow ceramic artist Fiona Hiscockyou’re your brilliant smile and assisting on the day.
Clay Stories is on until 13 October 2019. Last chance to see this exhibition.

Thanks also to Belinda Briggs from Shepparton Art Museum and Sabbia Gallery Director and Clay Stories curator Anna Grigson for the insightful floor talk.

Clay Stories was launched on Friday 2 August by Belinda Briggs, Shepparton Art Museum’s curator of Indigenous Visual Arts. Belinda’s words were extremely moving and a fitting tribute for the end of the two-year tour.

Clay Stories has travelled the country including JamFactory at Seppeltsfield, Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, Strathnairn Arts in Canberra, Gladstone Regional Gallery in Gladstone, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery in Coffs Harbour and now at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in Mornington. Thousands of visitors have been able to view the works by these twenty-two contemporary ceramics artists from across remote Australia.
​
Danny Lacy, Jane German and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery team displayed the exhibition wonderfully. Greatest thanks to all for the continued enthusiasm and support throughout the process and whilst on exhibition. We have received many comments from visitors the gallery regarding the what it is presented.

On a lovely sunny Saturday morning (11 May 2019) we were thrilled to have over a hundred visitors attend the Exhibition Floor Talk for the Clay Stories touring exhibition at Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery.

We were pleased to have Anna Grigson, Sabbia Gallery Director and Curator of Clay Stories give a brief history of the Clay Stories exhibition and the important of the Remote Communities Ceramic Netwrok (RCCN; Bruce Johnson McLean, Curator at QAGOMA speak at length about the artworks, artists and their Country; along with Abe Muriata and Nephi Denham who spoke about Girringun and the history of the Bagu, along with a few good stories.

The exhibition continues until 13 July. All enquiries to Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery. Pictured here is Bruce Johnson McLean

PicturedIt was a very happy and full house on Friday 10 May 2019 at Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery for the opening launch of Clay Stories. The response to the exhibition and the artwork was overwhelming. I anticipate that many hundreds will see this show before its closing on 13 July.

An enormous thanks to Jo Besley, Catherine Fogarty and their wonderful team from Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery for a brilliant presentation of the eighty artworks from the twenty-two artists from Erub Arts, Ernabella Arts, Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre, Hermannsburg Potters and Tiwi Design.

Thanks to Bruce Johnson McLean, Curator of Indigenous Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art who was our special guest and opening speaker for the evening. His heartfelt and personal response to the exhibition allowed all in attendance a greater appreciation of the significance of such an exhibition.

We were also lucky enough to have Abe Muriata and Nephi Denham, artists in the exhibition from Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre, as well as the manager of Girringun Valerie Keenan, and Sabbia Gallery Director and Curator of Clay Stories Anna Grigson part of the night.

Last but definitely not least a huge thanks to Uncle Mark for his wonderful Welcome to Country. We all felt very much welcome.

Pictured here L-R is Anna Grigson, Valerie Keenan, Nephi Denham, Uncle Mark, Bruce Johnson McLean and Abe Muriata

Clay Stories touring exhibition was officially opened by independent curator Freja Carmichael, with a number of artists in attendance. Exhibition curator Anna Grigson from Sabbia Gallery in Sydney attended the exhibition and following workshop. The opening was a great success and was well received by locals of Gladstone. Pictured from left – Freja Carmichael, Abe Muriata, Aunty Dianne, Nephi Denham & Anna Grigson.

Sabbia Gallery is thrilled to announce that Freja Carmichael will be our guest speaker at the official launch of Clay Stories at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum on Friday 22 February.

Freja Carmichael is a Ngugi woman belonging to the Quandamooka People of Moreton Bay. She is a curator working indpendently across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual arts and culture sector. Her work is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of traditional fibre knowledge and collaborative curatorial approaches.
 
She has curated and co-curated a number of exhibitions including Around and within at Macquarie Group collection (2018), The Commute at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018), Weaving Water Stories at Festival 2018, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Gathering Strands at Redland Art Gallery (2016).
 
In 2014, Freja received an Australia Council for the Arts emerging curatorial fellowship and the 2016 National Gallery of Australia International Indigenous Arts fellowship. More recently, she was awarded the inaugural Macquarie Group First Nations emerging curator award.
 
Currently, Freja is undertaking curatorial projects with the Institute of Modern Art, The University of Queensland Art Museum, Redland Art Gallery and is a member of Blaklash Collective.

Clay Stories is already on at Gladstone running from 15 December 2018 to 23 March 2019.

In conjunction with the official launch of the Clay Stories Touring Exhibition at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum in Queensland on Friday 22 February 2019, an adult's and children's (8-15 years) workshop will be held on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 February respectively from 10.30am to 12.30pm with exhibiting artists Nephi Denham (pictured left) and Abe Muriata (pictured right) from Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre. Girringun AAC supports and represents Aboriginal people from the rainforest of Far North Queensland. Enquiries and RSVP for workshops to the gallery  [email protected]

Image Around and within exhibition with Nadeena Dixon, Spirit Lines series and Bonnie Burangarra, Fish Traps. Photography by Flashpoint Labs.

We are so pleased to have Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum in Queensland host the travelling Clay Stories exhibition. The exhibition opened to the public on 15 December 2018. It runs until 23 March 2019. Here are some images from the installation including staff and volunteers from Gladstone RAGM, as well as a sneak preview to the exhibition situated in the O'Connell gallery space.

The official opening of Clay Stories at Gladstone RAGM with occur on Friday 22 February with our guest speaker Freja Carmichael launching the exhibition. A public program (details to be announced) will follow.

It was a full house on Sunday 13 May at the Strathnairn Arts Ceramics Studio. We spent the day listening to Jimmy Kenny Thaiday from Erub Arts talk about his ceramics, practice, imagery, stories and island home. We also had Pepai Jangala Carroll and Derek Jungarrayi Thompson from Ernabella Arts join us for the afternoon.

All three artists demonstrated their techniques with clay for the group. Everyone was happily involved in their own creations inspired by the artists. Looking forward to seeing the final results after the firing.