“Clay has the capability to capture texture, elevating the tactile and sensory experience. It provides the freedom to test forms and mark-making. Each piece I create is an experiment and evolution of my practice - capturing a moment or thought in time - ultimately making each piece a one-off.”
Georgia Stevenson is an emerging ceramic artist based in Melbourne, guided by the materiality and tactility of clay. Georgia’s current practice is guided by a self-initiated research project, Breaking Ground, which looks at using unconventional and locally found materials in ceramics such as construction and demolition waste. Breaking Ground is led by research and process, and the project’s scope extends beyond the physical and delves into provenance, meaning and significance of locality.
In 2016 she graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Architectural Studies)(Hons) from QUT, and worked in the architecture industry for three years. Georgia took pottery lessons in 2017 and changed career paths in 2020, working in part-time studio production assistant roles while developing her own practice. Stevenson’s earlier work explored surface detail and texture through repetitive mark-making, intricate carving and water-etching.
Georgia’s career highlights include receiving a 2023 City of Melbourne Arts Grant to deliver a solo exhibition at No Vacancy Gallery, as well as being selected to showcase in the members’ Vitrine Gallery at Craft Victoria. Both exhibitions focused on the Breaking Ground project, displaying research and application of ‘waste’ and byproduct materials in ceramics. Georgia is a founding member of artist collective, Alternative Ceramics Supply, which organised and delivered an exhibition and pop-up shop, Bulk Buy, as part of the Craft Contemporary Festival 2023 program.
Georgia is interested in the crossover between ceramics and architecture, urban design, landscape, public art, mapping and greater systems thinking. She is passionate about innovating with site specific materials to give character, colour, texture and meaning to our surroundings.
Solo Exhibition History
Materiality of Melbourne, No Vacancy Gallery, September 5-10, 2023. In partnership with Revival Sustainable Building Practice and supported by City of Melbourne Arts Grants.
Material Studies, Vitrine Gallery at Craft Victoria, July 25 - August 26, 2023
Group Exhibition History
Matters of Material, No Vacancy Gallery, January 16-27, 2024
Bulk Buy: an Exhibition and Pop-Up Shop, organised with artist collective Alternative Ceramics Supply, Testing Grounds Emporium, October 25-28, 2023. Georgia is a founding member of ACS alongside Amelia Black, Claire Ellis and Sarah Muir-Smith.
Sharefolder Fantasy, Online (Melbourne Design Week), Tedious Vase, March 2022
Fifty Squared Exhibition, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, By a Thread Ceramic Wall Hanging, June 2021
Petite Pieces, Aspire Gallery, Paddington QLD, Movement Vase, February 2021
Make or Break, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, Slip-Trailed Tumblers, August 2019
Grants
2023 City of Melbourne Arts Grant recipient
Publications & Presentations
In-person Presentation to Architecture students, Swinburne University, VIC, October 2023.
In-person Presentation to TCL (Landscape Architecture), Hosted at the Bulk Buy exhibition, Testing Grounds Emporium, VIC, October 2023.
Contributing author to Unusual Ingredients article, Journal of Australian Ceramics, 2023, Vol. 62, p112-115