Exhibition Insight... Patterns and Textures and Lines, Oh My!

Maricelle Olivier, Turkish Delight, Hand-built BRT, 2023, Photo: Connor Patterson

Patterns and Textures and Lines, Oh My! explores the intrinsic beauty of repetitive processes and patterns in craft making. Repetitive processes can be found in numerous aspects of craft and design, such as coiling with clay or repeating a stitch to form a vessel, and often have therapeutic benefits for the maker. Through these processes, artists create captivating patterns and lines that evoke a sense of meditative tranquillity. These patterns can be formed organically or mechanically, both ways highlighting the intricacy that can be achieved through these meditative processes.

Exhibitiors: Agnes Matasia, Bailey Donovan, Bianca Pintan, Caro Pattle, Elena Strohfeldt, Julie Anderson, Lisa Armstrong, Lilly Buttrose, Maricelle Olivier, Michelle Matasia, Noreen Bronson, Rosalind Yiparti, Sally Yiparti, Sophie Horvat, Trudy Nyurpaya Holland Smythe and Wiscome Newberry

Showing at JamFactory at Seppeltsfield from 2 December - 25 February 2024

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Tjanpi Desert Weavers, a social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, empowers women in remote Central and Western deserts to earn income through fibre art. With over 400 Aboriginal women artists from 26 communities, Tjanpi creates stunning contemporary baskets and sculptures. Field officers purchase artworks, provide materials, hold workshops, and organise grass-collecting trips. Tjanpi has a gallery in Alice Springs, NT and exhibits nationally, facilitating private commissions and hosting weaving workshops.

The artwork celebrates the joy of basket weaving, with the artists using bright coloured materials to create playful patterns. Tjanpi artworks are stitched and woven with colourful raffia and wool. Basket weaving blends old and new practices, bringing people together in the bush to connect with ancestral lands and pass knowledge through the generations. Baskets symbolise family, community and shared laughter, embodying movement, stillness and the rhythmic act of stitching.

Noreen Bronson with two kamule, 2023, Photo: Georgina Whigham

Bailey Donovan

Bailey Donovan is an emerging glass artist based in Tarndanya/Adelaide. He is an alumnus of JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Glass Studio, where he honed his skills and developed his unique artistic style. Bailey primarily works with blown and cast glass, pushing the boundaries of the medium to create innovative and captivating pieces. He is particularly renowned for his meticulous attention to detail, highlighting his expertise in Venetian cane and murrine techniques. One of his signature styles is the use of gingham patterns, which he incorporates into his vessels. Bailey’s work is a testament to his dedication and passion for glass art, as he continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the medium.

Bianca Pintan

Bianca Pintan is a Brazilian artist now based in Byron Bay. She started making art because she felt a strong, instinctual desire to do so, even though she didn’t have any formal training. Bianca uses this to her advantage by being open to ideas and inspiration. She likes to work with clay and makes each piece by hand, letting the clay guide her and deciding what it wants to be. Her artwork is all about textures, shapes and light, with each piece telling its own story. Bianca gets inspiration from nature, especially birds and their colourful feathers, although her art is always changing and she loves to explore and try new things.

Caro Pattle

Caro Pattle is a Naarm/Melbourne-based experimental object maker who explores handcraft processes through a lens of contemporary materiality. She combines various craft disciplines to create works that blur the boundaries between organic and inorganic. Caro’s practice ranges from large-scale public art installations to small sculptures, all driven by her research into material agency, object power and future worlds. In the creation of each vessel, the process unfolds gradually as velvet knots are added one by one to form meandering stripes. The pattern emerges from the desires of the material, the hand and the process itself. The coil weaving process naturally expands outward from the centre, requiring constant attention to control its growth. The forms of the vessels reflect this interplay of impulses, starting small and gradually expanding into a velvet bloom.

Elena Strohfeldt

Elena Strohfeldt is a ceramicist based in Naarm/Melbourne, who specialises in hand-built forms. Despite only starting her ceramic practice in 2020, she has already established own her brand, Elso Collective. Elena creates modern ceramic sculptures by shaping raw clay with her hands. Her pieces are sculptural, but also functional, combining both art and design. Elena’s colour palette consists of textured earthy tones, such as brown, cream and sand. Through her work, Elena explores the intersection of art and functionality, creating unique and visually appealing ceramic pieces. The organic hand built vessels features heavy carved patterned designs.

Lilly Buttrose

Lilly Buttrose is an artist based in Tarndanya/Adelaide who creates everyday jewellery that is simple and wearable. She initially studied textiles but became interested in jewellery making and now draws inspiration from both textiles and metal. Each piece is handmade by Lilly at her studio. In addition to jewellery, Lilly also works with basketry, embroidery, and screenprinting, which she showcases in exhibitions and collaborations with furniture designers. Her work balances between exhibition and retail, with an emphasis on time-intensive processes.

Maricelle Olivier

Maricelle Olivier is an emerging South African ceramicist based in Kamberri/Canberra who expresses her personal history through her work. She uses repetitive patterns to add detail to her pieces, reflecting her cultural identity and heritage. Maricelle’s works become vessels of emotion that are capable of holding deep feelings. Ceramics is a unique medium because the works are both strong and fragile, which can be frustrating for an artist. Maricelle uses a soft colour palette to convey this paradox, showing a softness and vulnerability, strength and fragility. Her works explore the temporary nature of ceramics, through firing they are transformed into something permanent. Together, Maricelle’s pieces create a reflective space filled with harmonious tones and patterns.

Sophie Horvat

Sophie Horvat is a Tarndanya/Adelaide-based ceramicist who is currently undertaking JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Ceramic Studio. In her practice, Sophie skilfully combines traditional and contemporary methods of wheel throwing and hand building to create both functional serving ware and striking statement vessels. Her work is deeply influenced by the rich traditions of handmade craftsmanship and the vibrant colours and textures found in the Australian landscape. Sophie’s artistic process is a fusion of various ceramic techniques, each lending its own unique mark and voice to her creations. Through the delicate art of pinching, pulling, joining and smoothing, she forms each piece into a visual representation of growth and abundance. Sophie’s slow, hand-built forms feature coils that gently trail around the organic forms.

Patterns and Textures and Lines, Oh My! will be showing at JamFactory at Seppeltsfield from 2 December – 25 February 2024