Fruits of Fancy: Katherine Smyth at City Gallery

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Swear to God: Katherine Smyth, 2005. Photography credit: Guy Robinson.

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Press Release. For immediate release, July 20 2007

Fruits of Fancy: Katherine Smyth at City Gallery Wellington

City Gallery Wellington’s Michael Hirschfeld Gallery will host a special survey of work from Wellington’s favourite potter, Katherine Smyth in Katherine Smyth: A Survey, July 28—August 26. The exhibition brings together works made over the last sixteen years, the earliest of which date from when Smyth was a student and the most recent were made just this year.

"Putting this show together has been a lovely excuse to chase up some of my favourite pieces from the past. People have been great about lending work. I feel lucky!" Smyth says.
Perhaps Smyth’s best-known works are those from the Fruit series which came about after a 2004 trip to the Middle East. She had seen an ancient Cypriot opium pot in the form of an inverted poppy head and decided to begin making small jugs in the form of the locally grown fruit. Smyth’s most recent series Squash seems to follow on from these works, while not directly referencing fruit and vegetables, their forms are reminiscent of dried-out striped gourds used as water vessels or containers.
Towards the entrance of the exhibition, visitors will see four bowls called Kuan ware which refers to the glaze, widely used in the Chinese Song Dynasty. As a ceramics student in Sydney, Smyth became interested in making pieces which were beautiful, sparking an investigation into traditional Chinese pottery.
Katherine Smyth was born in 1963. After training and working as a chef she studied at the National Art School in Sydney, gaining a three year Diploma in Fine Arts in 1991. Smyth has traveled to the Middle East several times, researching and teaching traditional pottery skills of the regions she was living in. Since 1998 she has worked full-time as a potter. She has had solo exhibitions at Craftspace, Sydney, 1994; Masterworks Gallery, Auckland, 2005 and 2002 and Avid Gallery, Wellington, 2006, 2005 and2002. She has also been included in group exhibitions: Portage Ceramics Awards, Lopdell House, Waitakere City, 2002—2005; The Home Show, Avid Gallery, Wellington, 2005 and The Gift Exchange, The New Dowse, Lower Hutt, 2007. Smyth has works in several public gallery collections. She currently lives in Lyall Bay.

Katherine Smyth: A Survey
July 28—August 26 2007
Michael Hirschfeld Gallery
City Gallery Wellington
Civic Square, Wellington
www.citygallery.org.nz
Admission: FREE

City Gallery Wellington is managed by the Wellington Museums Trust with major funding support from Wellington City Council. Michael Hirschfeld Gallery is proudly sponsored by DesignWorks Enterprise IG. Thanks also to Publication and Design, Wellington City Council and Courtenay Photographics.

ENDS

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