Gabriella Bisetto

WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Gabriella Bisetto is a Senior Lecturer at UniSA Creative, University of South Australia, and a practising glass artist whose work has always been influenced by an abiding interest in the inconceivable complexities of the human body. This interest has been underpinned by a fascination with science, biology, and a desire to translate the outcomes of this focus into tangible, visual outcomes. Her most recent work explores how change and transience of the human body might be understood through glass and multi media works.

‘Flame’ Curator Talk with Carly Tarkari Dodd

WEDNESDAY 23 OCTOBER 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Hear from Carly Tarkari Dodd, the curator of our latest exhibition ‘Flame’ showing in JamFactory, Gallery Two.

Flame delves into the rituals surrounding candles, light, and fire, emphasising both ancient traditions and contemporary rituals. This exhibition brings together the work of ten artists who reinterpret the candleholder, a symbol that has transcended time as both a ritual object and a beacon of personal and common expression.

Candles have been at the heart of spiritual and cultural rituals for tens of thousands of years. The earliest documented candleholders, dating back to 1699 in England, were not just functional items but intricate artefacts that carried deep symbolic meaning. Over centuries, these objects evolved from the ornate metalwork of the Middle Ages to the sleek ceramics of modern times each era adding its own layer of significance.

Alexandra Copeland

WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Alexandra Copeland grew up in Warrandyte, Victoria in a community of potters and artists. After graduating from Swinburne Technical College in 1968 she worked in the film industry, and since 1969 has practiced as an artist. At her first ceramics exhibition, in 1983, work was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia. She has exhibited her work in public or commercial galleries every year since then.

From 1989 Alexandra had eight exhibitions of ceramics and paintings in Japan. In 1992 she was awarded an Australia Council grant to work in ceramics studios in Italy and Turkey. Since then she has had eight residencies at Dartington Pottery in England and twelve in Jingdezhen in China.

In 2003 Alexandra was invited to design carpets to be woven in Pakistan by refugee weavers from Afghanistan. The project continues with carpets hand knotted by women weavers in Afghanistan.

Jake Rollins

WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Jake Rollins is a South Australian born craftsperson and designer whose solo practice focuses on creating speculative one-off and editioned works for galleries in Milan and Sydney.

Calum Hurley

WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Calum Hurley is a Melbourne-based designer with a background in Interior Architecture. He is an alumni of JamFactory’s esteemed Associate Training Program, and his practice includes furniture, object, spatial, exhibition and visual merchandising design.

Tom Skeehan

WEDNESDAY 24 JULY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

SKEEHAN was established in 2011 by award-winning industrial designer Tom Skeehan, and now encompasses a dedicated, close-knit team of research and design expert. As an experienced hands-on, multidisciplinary designer, Skeehan follows a tested design process and uses strategic thinking to solve problems. With over 10 years of experience leading creative design projects across multiple industry sector, Skeehan relishes in the collaborative design process and inspires people to learn and design great products.

Jane Bowden

WEDNESDAY 31 JULY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Jane Bowden is a jewellery designer/maker and owner of Zu design - jewellery + objects. Her practice is divided into running Zu design, making exhibition work and commissions for clients. Jane has been producing and exhibiting work for 34 years, locally, nationally, and internationally. Her practice showcases her passion for hand making, traditional jewellery techniques and textiles, all of which inform her work.

Julie Blyfield

WEDNESDAY 7 AUGUST 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Julie Blyfield is a jeweller and metalsmith whose ever-evolving practice is inspired by her research into botanical specimens, historical silver collections and the rich diversity of the Australian landscape. Predominantly working in silver and copper, Blyfield interprets botanical motifs using the traditional metalsmithing techniques of chasing and repoussé to create intricately patterned jewellery and objects. In a practice spanning more than 35 years, she has exhibited prolifically both nationally and internationally, in addition to undertaking formative residencies, conducting workshops and mentoring emerging artists. 

Leslie Mathews

WEDNESDAY 14 AUGUST 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Leslie Mathews is a contemporary jeweller and object maker based in Adelaide. In response to her surrounding environment, she creates jewellery, sculptural objects and imagery that explores organic patterning and the layers and interrelationships between spatial perception, gestural mark-making and materiality. Drawing on diverse materials including sterling silver, pigmented porcelain, vitreous enamels, watercolour and gouache, Leslie investigates an intimacy of scale, intensity of textures and interconnecting sensory experiences.

Guy Keulemans with
Kay Lawrence

WEDNESDAY 1 MAY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Guy Keulemans is a designer, artist and curator researching repair, reuse, materials and generative processes for environmental sustainability. Guy has a Masters in Humanitarian Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven and a PhD from the University of New South Wales. An Enterprise Fellow at the University of South Australia, he is a member of the Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3) and associate member of the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE). Guy has exhibited in museums and galleries across Australia, Asia and Europe including COCA in Poland, KORA in Italy and ARS Electronica in Austria. He has works in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria and Art Gallery of South Australia. With frequent collaborator Kyoko Hashimoto he is represented by Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert in Sydney and was named one of the Top 100 Game Changers in Design by Architectural Digest Italia in 2021.

Kay Lawrence AM is Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia where she had a distinguished career as an educator in the visual arts, becoming the first woman appointed to head the South Australian School of Art in 2002. She has an international profile as a tapestry weaver and her work is held in many public collections in Australia and overseas. In her visual art and writing practices she critically engages with matters of personal and community identity, exploring ideas of loss and connection through the materiality of textiles. Her art practice ranges across woven tapestry to installation and performance works using humble domestic materials like buttons and string to explore the material and immaterial resonances of human life. 

Grace Lai

WEDNESDAY 8 MAY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Guided by curiosity, Grace is an art historian and curator interested in uncovering stories held by objects overlooked or dismissed by history. Her research interest lies in seeking out the 'space between' - the complex web of connections between material and immaterial culture - publishing extensively on contemporary craft, with a focus on studio glass, jewellery, and textiles. Grace curated Carried Away: Bags Unpacked at Auckland Museum, which surveyed the Museum's collection of bags across culture, era, and materials.

Zoe Grigoris

WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Zoe Grigoris is a contemporary jeweller, living and working on Kaurna land (Adelaide).

Using traditional mark making techniques (repoussé and chasing) Zoe creates romantic, ethereal pieces that speak to the sentimental role of jewellery. Her work explores nostalgia, daydreams and the ephemeral, often incorporating detailed patterns, painterly finishes and whimsical motifs such as flowers, hearts and petals.

Zoe’s practice balances private commissions (wedding, engagement jewellery) with an exhibitions practice, including larger scale wall works. Zoe graduated from Flinders University (2011) with a Bachelor of Arts before completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts Specialisation at University of South Australia (2014). She completed the JamFactory Associate program in 2016. Her work can be found in galleries across Australia and in the UK.

Jordan Gower

WEDNESDAY 22 MAY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Jordan Gower is a South Australian artist working with ceramics since 2016. Originally trained as printmaker, Gower studied as the Adelaide College of the Arts before completing an Honours degree at the University of South Australia, exploring perception and printmaking in the expanded field. After graduation he held a studio at Carclew and worked at SASA Gallery, before returning to AC Arts to attend ceramic wheel throwing classes. After an initial introduction to ceramics, Gower joined JamFactory’s Associate Training Program, under guidance from Damon Moon and David Pedler.

As a JamFactory Associate, Gower was named 2017’s Drink Dine Design Emerging Designer Award for his work with Chef Emma McCaskill. He was also awarded a mentorship with Castlemaine-based artist Phil Elson and a wood firing residency in Tasmania with Ben Richardson of Ridgeline Pottery. Over the course of his career Gower has consistently participated in group exhibitions and attended international residencies in Singapore and Japan and locally at Nexus.

Experienced making tableware, Gower has developed a reputation as a high-quality production studio, under the moniker Aburi. His work can be found extensively across top South Australian restaurants and wineries, including Magill Estate Restaurant, Restaurant Botanic, Hardy’s Verandah Restaurant and Muni, as well as various private collections.

Drew Spangenberg

WEDNESDAY 29 MAY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Drew Spangenberg is a contemporary glass artist living and practicing on Kaurna land.

Drew's work incorporates traditional glassblowing techniques and explores themes of composition with harmonious and juxtaposing forms using unique colour combinations. Through typically utilitarian vessels his work implores us to see beauty in the mundane, everyday object. Drew's glass practice spans production and exhibition work with a heavy interest in Venetian goblet making.

Drew completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the University of South Australia in 2012 before undertaking the two year Associate Training Program at JamFactory (2014-2015) where he now runs his practice and is currently the Production Manager, Working to train Associates and producing JamFactory products and commissions.  

Gray Hawk

WEDNESDAY 5 JUNE
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

South Australian-based designer and maker Gray Hawk is renowned for his meticulous attention to detail and the great artistry in his bespoke designs. His distinct aesthetic is informed by an Art Deco sensibility that is opulent in form and meticulous in detail. Hawk has been commissioned to design and make bespoke furniture for over 40 years. Steeped in history, tradition and experience—his daily challenge is to generate objects with the utmost integrity.

Sue Lorraine

WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2024
12:!5PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Sue’s arts practice spans over 40 years and she is a founding member and current partner, with Catherine Truman, Jess Dare and Lisa Furno of Gray Street Workshop, Adelaide.

 From 1999-2008 Sue was the Creative Director of the Metal Design Studio, JamFactory Adelaide. From 2009-2021, she worked for Arts South Australia, the state government’s business unit within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, first as the Public Art and Design Arts Development Officer and then as a Grants Officer. For seven years from 2010-2017, she was the curator of the exhibition program at Gray Street Workshop Gallery.

 Sue’s experience as a self-employed artist, as a member of a collective arts studio, an employee of an arts organization and the state government provide her with a broad understanding of the industry and community.

She has exhibited at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art and Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art through the Asialink Touring program, at the London, Design Museum in the Australian exhibition Unexpected Pleasures and in the exhibition The Language of Things at the Dowse, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

Her practice revolves around her relationship with objects and their potential and power to hold and to assign meaning and memory. She strives to make work that is personal but with a degree of abstraction, work that is sometimes wearable, sometimes not, sometimes solid, other times fragile, often small, on occasions large, always thoughtful, never rushed and made with skill and refinement.

Angela Valamanesh

WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Angela Valamanesh is an independent visual artist based in Adelaide. A graduate of South Australian School of Art in 1977 her practice primarily involved ceramics. In 1996 she was awarded an Anne & Gordon Samstag Scholarship. Her art works are included in collections including Art Gallery of South Australia and National Gallery of Australia and evolve from research undertaken during residencies such as Smithsonian Institute Washington DC in 2014. They explore the often-seductive connections between plants and animals. She has also completed a number of public art commissions in partnership with Hossein Valamanesh including An Gorta Mor 1999, Hyde Park Barracks Sydney, 14 Pieces, 2005, on North Terrace and the Ginkgo Gate, 2011, Adelaide Botanic Gardens. She recently completed the Mordant Family / Creative Australia Affiliated Fellowship in Rome and is represented by GAGPROJECTS Adelaide and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert Sydney.

Damien Wright

WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH 2024
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA BARBARA HANRAHAN LECTURE THEATRE (BH2-09)

Damien Wright is an award-winning furniture designer and craftsman with over 30 years of experience. Damien has contributed cultural artefacts to Australian intuitions of law, politics, art and culture. At the heart of each and every design is an investigation into materials. Damien works with his hands to understand how Australian timbers reveal stories about place, time, colonisation and belonging. He uses timbers that are not traditionally employed to make furniture, such as eucalyptus, desert timbers and 10,000 Ancient red gum. Since 2010 Damien has collaborated with Yolngu man  Bonhula Yunupingu on their Bala Ga’ Lili (Two ways learning) project. Bala Ga’ Lili comprises a collection of timber sculptures that visually represent the tension inherent in First Nations and Settler Colonial relationships. The pair have created a new language that sits outside of settler domination or traditional and sacred practice. 

Damien’s public commissions include the Federal Court of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Immigration Museum, Federation Square Management offices, the Koori County Court of Victoria and the Archdiocese of Broken Bay.  Damien Wright is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery Canberra, Powerhouse Museum and National Gallery Victoria. Damien is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert in Sydney. Wright Studios is located in Northcote, Victoria.

Kath Inglis

WEDNESDAY 20 MARCH 2024
12:15 - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Raised in Australia's multicultural tropical city of Darwin, Kath Inglis moved to Adelaide to study contemporary jewellery. After graduating from the South Australian School of Art in 2000, Kath continued to develop her practice by working from a number of studios, including JamFactory's Metal Studio, Gray Street Workshop, co-director of soda and rhyme jewellery design studio, and currently works from a studio at the Hahndorf Academy in the Adelaide Hills. Kath has developed a distinctive craft practice by working with her signature material, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Her latest solo exhibition, Immersed in the Offsure, is the response to a Guildhouse Collections Project with the Adelaide Botanic Gardens State Herbarium held in 2019. 

Alison Milyika Carroll

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Alison Milyika Carroll was born in 1958 at the Ernabella Mission, now known as Pukatja Community. Alison Milyika's late husband, Kunmanara Carroll, was a former community policeman and internationally recognised artist, and together they have five children and five grandchildren.

Alison Milyika is the current Anangu Mayatja (Manager) at Ernabella Arts and has previously been the Chairperson. She is also the Anangu Mayatja of Ananguku Arts (the peak body for South Australian Indigenous arists and art centres) and is on the Board of the Ernabella Anangu School, the Mai Wiru store, the Ernabella Community Council and the Traditional Owner Working Group of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

Alison Milyika is a respected artist working across multiple mediums and her artwork reflects her identity as a contemporary and senior Pitjantjatara Yankunytjatjara woman. Her batik and ceramics are held in public collections, nationally an internationally. In 2011 she was awarded an Australia Council grant to undertake a residency within the Ceramics Department at ANU. The resulting work was exhibited in Canberra and collected by the National Museum of Australia and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Liam Fleming

WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Liam Fleming is a boundary-pushing glass artist whose work explores the intersections of craft, art, design, and architecture. Through deliberate “controlled demolition” of mould-blown forms, he captures transformative moments and embraces the beauty of uncertainty. Fleming’s experimentation with coldworking techniques adds an element of chance to his process. With an impressive exhibition history including major international events, collaborations with renowned designers and architects, and recognition through grants and awards, he is establishing himself as a leading artist in his field. His works can be found in public collections across Australia, including the NGV. Fleming’s upcoming exhibitions at AGSA, supported by his Guildhouse Fellowship, promises an exciting glimpse into his evolving glass artistry.

Yoko Kawada

WEDNESDAY 25 OCTOBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Yoko is a Sydney based designer and maker, founder of “Art Kintsugi Sydney” and “SQUARE + ROUND” Mosaic series since 2016. Her work combines elements of handcraft and industrial production, reflecting the “Unity of Opposites” and her cross-cultural background. Her design translates boldness and elegance, tradition, and innovation, streamlined and curved, square, and round. 

Aiming to connect international arts and crafts, Yoko brings to her practise a range of Kintsugi and Makie art including ancient Urushi method which she has been learning the technique from master artisans in Japan. She is currently running Art Kintsugi workshops in multiple venues and online, as well as taking repair commissions and collaboration projects.

Caitlin Eyre & Carly Dodd

WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
JAMFACTORY, GALLERY ONE

Carly Tarkari Dodd is a Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist from Adelaide. She has learnt traditional weaving techniques and puts these to new use to create contemporary works of art, often combining weaving with painting and found objects to tell her story. Carly is interested in regalia – the distinctive clothing and ornaments worn by royalty. She is committed to shedding light on the injustices experienced by Aboriginal people, choosing to award recognition to those left out of society. Carly is also First Nations Engagement Coordinator / Assistant Curator at JamFactory, Adelaide.

Caitlin Eyre is a Curator and Exhibitions Manager at the JamFactory, Adelaide. Caitlin leads a small curatorial team in the development, installation and curation of exhibitions focused on showcasing contemporary Australian craft and design.

Sundari Carmody

WEDNESDAY 8 NOVEMBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Sundari Carmody is an Australian artist who grew up in Bali, Indonesia. Her multimedia works explore the relationships between consciousness and the cosmos. Her practice concerns itself with the question of how to engage with universal systems and aspects of being, which linger in the category of the unknown, in ‘the dark’. Using varied and carefully selected materials such as nocturnal scents, sleep-bringing poppies, fabric, brass, light and mist, she attempts to find useful frameworks to give form to things that are invisible, or which lie just beyond the limits of our perception. Her work examines how we process (through the instruments of science, culture, physiology, and psychology) aspects of 'the dark' and ask - what are the implications of these unknowns for our concept of knowledge itself?

Sundari graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia. Sundari’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions across Australia, including Firstdraft, Sydney; ‘Slow Moving Waters’ 2021 TarraWarra Biennial, Healesville; ACE Gallery, Adelaide; Seventh Gallery, Melbourne; Bus Projects, Melbourne; Outer Space, Brisbane; and FELTspace, Adelaide. Her work is held in private collections and Artbank.

Sundari Carmody
Turns, Protracted, and Slow
GAGPROJECTS 
1 November - 1 December 2023

Jeff Mincham

WEDNESDAY 26 JULY
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

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.

Clare Belfrage

WEDNESDAY 23 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Clare Belfrage has maintained a distinguished arts practice for over 35 years. Her detailed and complex glass drawings on blown glass forms reflect the high-level skill and innovative approach to her craft that makes her one of the country’s most renowned artists in this medium. Inspired by nature and its various rhythms and energies, Clare‘s exquisite sculptural objects express her fine attention to detail, a fascination with pattern and rhythm and deep connection to the natural world.

Clare continues to exhibit extensively and is represented in major public collections throughout Australia, the US and Europe including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, most Australian State collections, Corning Museum of Glass, USA, Tacoma Museum of Glass, USA, Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark, Castello Sforzesco Museum, Italy and the Nijima Glass Museum, Japan. She is currently Adjunct Professor with UniSA Creative at the University of South Australia.

Tom Moore

WEDNESDAY 2 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

In a world where life seems to be changing with unprecedented rapidity, where change is a constant, the stories we tell ourselves are more important than ever before. And while this fable about our time being unlike any other is an old story, it is still true and must be told again today.

Tom Moore works in blown glass, an ancient technique, but his images, narratives and settings are completely contemporary. His fantastical world embraces gorgeous birds and animals that have already hybridised with modern automobiles and aeroplanes and is inhabited by exquisite creatures that are morphing to inhabit a universe that seems quite as ominous as it is beautiful.

Tom is based in Adelaide, South Australia. He works closely with JamFactory, using their hot glass facilities as well as working from his own studio at home.

Andrew Carvolth

WEDNESDAY 30 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Andrew is a craftsman and designer based in Adelaide, Australia. After graduating the ANU School of Art (Design-Arts Hons) Andrew established his design practice creating speculative exhibition work, commissions and edition objects.

Andrew’s practice is defined by a reappropriation of traditional making processes and associated materials, primarily timber, and attempts to capture a uniquely Australian vernacular.

In a world of specialists, Andrew considers himself a generalist, exploring many facets of craft and design practices including furniture making, tool/instrument making, lighting design, conservation and curatorial projects. From this melting pot of influences Andrew forges a unique perspective and understanding to how he approaches design.

Lauren Simeoni

WEDNESDAY 9 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Lauren Simeoni is an Adelaide artist and has a degree in Gold and Silversmithing from Canberra School of Art. She completed a Design Associateship at the Jam Factory, a mentorship at Gray Street Workshop in Adelaide and was a practising member at Gate 8 Workshop. Lauren has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas, including ten solo exhibitions. 

In 2017 she completed an international arts residency with the Yiwei Art Foundation in Shanghai, culminating with a solo exhibition at the San W Gallery China. Lauren has a diverse creative practice; she teaches and guest lectures at various institutions, curate’s public programs and actively participates on art and design related boards and projects. Currently, Lauren is the Arts Coordinator in the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation’s, Arts in Health program, Adelaide SA.

Granite Calimpong

WEDNESDAY 16 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Granite Calimpong is a a multi-media sculptor working in ceramics, wood, glass, metal, light and photography. He creates work that is sensitive to site and acutely aware of the contexts in which the work will be produced, displayed, and distributed.

Calimpong has spent years, and in some cases decades, learning to work with materials in order to obtain the technical information necessary to realize ideas. He believes every material is unique and is invested in trying to use materials in ways that utilize their singular characteristics.

The human experience is a varied and complicated one. Granite Calimpong strives to create work that interrogates these complexities while exhibiting his love for materials, his interests in the emotional impact of color, and his individual sense of balance and form.

Gerry Wedd

WEDNESDAY 17 MAY
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Gerry Wedd (SA) is a potter and a surfer. He has a first degree in visual arts and obtained a Masters in Fine Art from UNISA in 2005. He has been making pots for forty years which has been his main means for survival. His work runs the gamut from functional domestic ware to large installation works and public art.

From 1986 until 2006 he worked with leisurewear company Mambo producing drawings for t-shirts and fabric prints.

Gerry has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally, including Havana Biennial, JamFactory, Ian Potter Museum of Art and The Victoria and Albert Museum. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Hobart Art Prize in 2010 and the 1998 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award. He is represented in major public collections in Australia.

Kirsten Coelho

WEDNESDAY 24 MAY
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Kirsten Coelho works in porcelain creating functional forms and vessels of other- worldly perfection that fuse the formal with the abstract. Her work has been influenced by the history of ceramics, in particular the aging surfaces of nineteenth and early twentieth-century domestic enamel wares – jugs, flask, bowls, beakers – echoes of the pleasures of daily life which she reiterates in inviolate meditations on the history, purity and order of daily rituals and routines. 

Having returned to Australia from London in the late 1990s, Coelho’s concern with the formal archetypes of the historical household turned to the nineteenth-century Australian settler and migrant experience. The extraordinary dreams, ambitions and failings of these experiences are referenced in the luscious thick white glazes and pared back simplicity of Coelho’s works, which consider how objects and art shape history and cultural memory. 

Coelho’s work has been exhibited widely both in Australia and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include The Return, at UNSW Galleries (2021), and an ethereal yet monumental installation, Ithaca, displayed at the University of South Australia’s Samstag Museum of Art (2020). In 2019 Coelho was the recipient of an Arts South Australia Fellowship that allowed her to conduct international research on ceramic collections in Italy and Greece, and lead to the development for two new bodies of work in porcelain of which Ithaca was one. In 2015 Coelho accepted an invitation to undertake a residency at Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah, which resulted in a solo exhibition at Tweed Regional Gallery in 2016. In 2012 Coelho won the prestigious Sidney Myer Ceramic Award.

In 2020 Wakefield Press, in conjunction with Arts South Australia, published the first major publication on Coelho’s practice which spans thirty years. The book weaves images of her impeccable vessels with painting and a series of essays by author Wendy Walker and a forward by Glenn Barkley.

Neville Assad-Salha

WEDNESDAY 14 JUNE
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Neville Assad-Salha has been working with clay over a forty year period. He studied at the South Australian School of Art then ran his own studio in the Barossa Valley before going on to working in many Universities and Art Schools throughout Melbourne, Victoria and Adelaide, South Australia. During his widely accomplished career, he has headed departments at the Meat Market Craft Centre, The Victoria College of the Arts, the Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design Centre and also the Adelaide College of Arts, as well as being a Research Fellow at the University of South Australia. Neville currently shares his time between his role as a Professor of Fine Arts in Lebanon and his home in the Barossa Valley, Australia.

Neville’s works are in many private collections and also in State Galleries in Australia. He has been commissioned for many pieces of work including the Sydney Opera House.

Assad-Salha’s works look closely at space (not what space is but what it represents – a metaphor to space). Many of his works relate to the vessel form. This in turn, reflects the image of the human form being the vessel along with some structural sculptural forms looking at architectural constructions being the tomb (a place of birth, a place of living, a place of death).

Meryl Ryan

WEDNESDAY 15 FEBRUARY
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Meryl Ryan is a widely travelled curator and creative producer with over three decades experience in the arts sector, including seven years as an editor/writer in London, UK. Currently commissioned for a biennial exhibition series (2020–2028) at The Lock-Up, and previously Senior Curator MAC yapang (fka Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery), she has curated over 70 contemporary multidisciplinary exhibitions, with projects and publications endorsed by major awards. Meryl was recipient of ANU’s inaugural Janet Wilkie Memorial Scholarship for Fine Art (UK, Russia); the 2009 ASIALINK Curatorial Exchange (Japan); and 2013 M&G NSW Fellowship at Museum of Arts and Design, NYC (USA).

Meryl is curator of New Exuberance: contemporary Australian textile design showing at JamFactory Adelaide from 17 February - 16 April 2023.

Suki Cheema

WEDNESDAY 22 FEBRUARY
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Suki Cheema, highlighting the love affair between art, travel and textiles, places bright colors and bold prints at the heart of his collection of timeless modern designs. Inspired by world travel, each season Suki and his team search the globe for the most invigorating regions, interpreting the sights and cultures into beautiful contemporary textiles. The range features hand silk-screened prints and embroidery techniques that are centuries old. Prints are paired with the, often unusual, use of embroidery for added texture and dimension. While honoring and utilizing the artisanship and crafts of his ancestors, Suki’s design sensibility reflects a refreshing vision of the world.

It is no surprise that Suki created a textile company with an eye for distinctive yet timeless pieces. As a child he would often find himself in his mother’s dowry amongst rich fabrics, blankets and his most cherished heirloom – a hand woven kissie made by his nana for his mother on her wedding day. Driven by his love for beautiful textiles and ancient techniques, Suki studied printmaking at Central Saint Martins in London, graduating in 1999. After school, he spent a year journeying the world, which spurred his now concrete passion for travel. During his explorations, he took hundreds of photos and translated them to prints that then caught the attention of Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren – all of whom enlisted his talents for color, textiles and printmaking. After meeting Diane von Furstenberg in 2002, Suki joined the design team to create prints for this iconic brand. Inspired by Diane to be passionate and follow his dreams, Suki launched SUKI CHEEMA.

Suki Cheema is teaching a Silkscreen Printing Workshop as part of JamFactory’s Term 1 Short Course Program.

Caren Elliss

WEDNESDAY 1 MARCH
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

During her Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) at the University of South Australia, Caren Elliss travelled to Mexico to undertake a four-month Industrial Design internship at AirDesign. On her return, she commenced study towards a Master of Sustainable Design at University of South Australia. During her first year in the Masters course Elliss was accepted into the two –year Associate program at JamFactory, and put her studies on hold to take up this opportunity. Having worked closely with a number of Australian brands including Koskela, Estilo Commercial and Woodmark, Elliss has expanded her practice to include residential and hospitality fit outs. During 2016 -2018 Elliss was a Studio Educator in Product Design and a Workshop Instructor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia. 2021 brought about some exciting collaborations with Keturah Zimran from Ikuntji Arts for Tarnanthi (Jam Factory) and joint exhibition with Alison Smiles for Ludere- to play (Craft ACT). Describing herself as an Industrial Designer/Maker Elliss is known for producing thoughtful, original furniture and objects. Tapping into her digital and manufacturing skills, she continues to produce small – run commercial grade furniture/objects utilised in Universities, Hospitality venues and private residences across Australia.

Caren Elliss is exhibiting as part of New Exuberance: contemporary Australian textile design showing at JamFactory Adelaide from 17 February - 16 April 2023.

Sonya Rankine

WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH
12:15PM - 1:00PM
UNISA JEFFREY SMART BUILDING

Sonya Rankine is a Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga & Wirangu artist who has established herself as a weaver under her business name of Lakun Mara. Lakun Mara means Weaving Hand in Ngarrindjeri language.

Sonya shares the rich cultural tradition of weaving and the importance of weaving for Ngarrindjeri and Ngadjuri First Nation people of South Australia. Woven through her workshops is the sharing of history and how colonisation has impacted on the tradition. Weaving for Sonya is more than just art, it is the important practice of cultural revival and maintenance. Weaving is an integral element of culture and her story as an artist.

The traditional Ngarrindjeri/Ngadjuri weaving technique is at the core and blends different weaving techniques for her woven creations creating contemporary pieces. Living at Moonta Bay limits her access to the reeds and utilises local natural fibres gathered locally, which still creates a connection to land and natural resources. Sonya creates custom made and unique Lakun Mara jewellery, commissioned baskets and wall-hangings.

Sonya Rankine is teaching a Weaving Workshop as part of JamFactory’s Term 1 Short Course Program.

Katheryn Leopoldseder

WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Katheryn Leopoldseder (°1980, Melbourne, Australia) is an internationally recognised Melbourne based artist who works across sculptural media to create both intimate and large-scale art objects. Awarded First Class Honors (Gold and Silversmithing) RMIT, Melbourne, Leopoldseder works with the language of jewellery to contemplate our relationship to the body in time and place. Central to Leopoldseders practice is her relationship to research; which continues to inform her material, and often site-informed, explorations of individual and collective identities.

Leopldseders work has been widely shown internationally and in Australia. Her works are currently represented in prominent Australian collections such as the NSW Powerhouse Museum, The National Gallery or Victoria and The Art Gallery of South Australia. Leopoldseder is a founding member of Melbourne's culturally significant Abbotsford Convent Arts Precinct, from which her practice is currently based.

Katheryn Leopoldseder is exhibiting in Pearlescent at JamFactory from 30 September - 27 November 2022

Peter Walker

WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Peter Walker is a visual artist, furniture designer, surfboard builder, and an esteemed educator with an extending influence. Throughout Walker’s creative practice he encourages audiences to reflect on the nature of wood and its origins.

Born in Sydney, Peter Walker gained an MFA Degree the School of Art, University of Tasmania  in 1993. He worked in his own studio for 14 years in Tasmania before moving to Adelaide to Head the Furniture Design Studio at the JamFactory Craft and Design Center in the late 90’s. Peter spent five years as Design Consultant for Chiswell Furniture, Sydney and was a founding member of the Designer Makers Tasmania Cooperative in 1985. He was Co- Director of the 1991 Hobart Design Triennial.

Peter joined Uni SA in 2012 after ten years in the USA where he was Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, serving in roles such as Graduate Program Director and Head of the Furniture Design Department. He continues this relationship through annual academic exchanges between UniSA and RISD.

Peter Walker is exhibiting in Peter Walker: Tanglewood at JamFactory from 30 September - 27 November 2022

Matt Pearson

WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Born in Sydney, trained in Launceston, living and working in Adelaide, Matt Pearson is a furniture designer and maker operating his practice MJP Studio. 

He strives to create objects to be woven into the fabric of the family home: objects that become a living, breathing part of the family. Matt wants his pieces to create long-lasting memories for the people that use them. Matt consistently pushes and tests his abilities across many different mediums including timber, fabric, concrete, resin and metal. His designs celebrate a rich material use, attention to detail, and every piece is designed and crafted with the utmost care and sensibility.

Matt Pearson is an Alumnus of JamFactory's Furniture Studio.

Dan McLean

WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Dan McLean is the Program Director of the Bachelor of Design, Product Design Program at the University of South Australia. Dan has worked professionally as an Industrial Designer in fields including consumer electronics, automotive and food and beverage packaging. He has worked both in Australia and internationally and has extensive Product Design teaching experience, specifically in Design Studio courses, Human Centred Design, Design Drawing and 3D Visualisation.

Dan’s areas of expertise include product styling and aesthetics, branding, human factors, human centred design and design for manufacture.

Giles Bettison

WEDNESDAY 10 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Currently based in Adelaide, South Australia, Giles Bettison is one of the country’s most significant glass artists.  Combining influences from textile and painting traditions, his richly detailed and nuanced forms are visual and emotional responses to rural and urban landscapes, relationships and the beauty of everyday life as it unfolds around him.   

After completing a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at the Canberra School of Art in 1996 Bettison expanded his education, with a focus on glass blowing, at Corning Museum of Glass and Pilchuck Glass School, Washington. His subsequent contributions back to the profession are extensive, with teaching stints at Pilchuck Glass School, Washington, USA, Wheaton Art and Cultural Centre, New Jersey, USA, Corning Museum of Glass, NY, USA, Urban Glass, NY, USA, Canberra School of Art, Creative Glass, Zurich and CERFAV, Nancy, France, amongst much else.  

From 1997, Bettison has exhibited around the world, including solo shows in Switzerland, Germany, the United States of America and Australia. Amongst numerous prizes, in 2015 Bettison was the winner of the South Australian Living Artists award, and in 2001 won the Bavarian State Prize, Gold Medal, from the Handwerkskammer fur Munchen und Oberbayern.  

Adrian Potter

WEDNESDAY 24 AUGUST
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Born in Melbourne, Adrian Potter is a conceptual artist and product designer who makes work that most often happens to take the form of furniture. Potter is also recognized for his public art, examples of which are to be seen in and around Adelaide. Adrian Potter works in the borderlands of craft, design, sculpture and conceptual art, creating work that defies rigid categorization. This raises questions about what furniture—and works of art—can be.

A meticulous craftsman, with a background in mechanical engineering, Potter began making furniture after producing a series of guitars early in his career (1988–1990). Based on the elegant geometry of vintage harp guitars, these musical instruments are precursors of Potter’s later, more ambitious woodwork and furniture. In his more recent work he seems to be conducting a dialogue between form, function and concept.

"I have been designing and making objects large and small all my life. It is my joy. Wood is my material of choice: I love its colours, textures and how incredibly versatile it is. Stories are important too."

Donald Fortescue

POP UP TALK
WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE
12:15PM - 1:00PM
MERCURY CINEMA

Donald Fortescue is an artist, writer, curator and educator. He creates sculptural ‘instruments’, installations, video, sound works and images which reframe our view of the world. He is interested in revealing energies and events which are beyond our usual perception together with the human experiences and histories which underlie our understanding of the natural world. His work highlights the rich history of human engagement with the natural world and our evolving efforts to find our place within it.

Donald Fortescue was the Head of Furniture Design at the Jam Factory from 1995-1996 prior to moving to the USA to take up the position as the Chair of the Furniture Design Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Over the last 25 years his work has evolved from the functional to the sculptural. Donald will share his creative and professional trajectory with us during his lunchtime talk.