JEFF MINCHAM AM - CERAMIC ARTIST

2011 - Member of the Order of Australia (AM)

2009 - Living Treasure - Master of Australian Craft, Craft Australia

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Mincham’s prolific career as a leading figure in Australian ceramics, spanning more than four decades, has been characterised by a complex relationship with landscape. Strongly influenced by his childhood home in the Coorong and his current home in the Adelaide Hills, his work is the product of a constantly evolving relationship with his medium. His long and varied relationship with the capricious traditional Japanese Raku aesthetic has forged a distinct style in which the landscape is not so much viewed, as experienced; continuously re-evaluated through the complex contemplations of a master of his craft.

Mincham’s attraction to the mutability of the landscape [and] the constant changes around him, has led to over 80 solo exhibitions around the world since 1976. His artwork is held in thousands of private collections, over 100 permanent public collections and all major state and regional galleries in Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and

Parliament House, Canberra. His international collecting bodies include the Australian Chancery, Saudi Arabia; Aberyswyth Arts Centre, Wales; National Galleries of Malaysia and Taiwan; State Collection of Hawaii; and the Silber, Stephen Alpert and Johnson Collections, USA.

I’ve always thought of myself as living in a landscape, perhaps because I’ve never lived in a city or even a town for longer than a few months. The events of the landscape draw me towards it. My works explore my engagement with its moods, its changes and dramas. They speak of harsh, dry, windswept lands, of the shimmering distance beneath brooding skies. A passing moment of mystery and wonderment captured by the eye and embedded in the memory.