About

OUR STUDIO: Place and Practice

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SoCA’s Brunswick studio is a fertile learning, making, drawing, and exhibition space.  The main ceramics studio is equipped with high-quality wheels, a glaze lab and gas and electric kilns. The project space with its broad high walls, filtered light and winter fire is at SoCA’s heart. Continually refreshed with a changing display of work in progress, natural curiosities and objects to inspire, it is a place where senses are heightened and we are prompted to see the world anew.

Classes at SoCA are taught by practicing artists in an environment where there is a deliberate orientation toward investigation of ideas and techniques, shared discovery and individual development.  There is a strong focus on enabling students to work – and play – from their creative centre and grow a sustainable practice from this foundation.  This approach contributes to a sense of vitality and possibility that is reflected in the quality and diversity of student work.    Beyond formal classes, we also work with invited artists from other disciplines to develop ceramic projects, further enriching an ever-evolving and inspiring creative space.

Teachers

Shane Kent

Shane Kent

Shane Kent trained as a potter in Japan and Australia before completing a Bachelor of Fine Art (Ceramics), post-graduate studies in sculpture and education, and a Masters in Drawing. He taught the Diploma of Art (Ceramics) at Box Hill TAFE from 1989-2011.  He has been exhibiting in Melbourne since 1985, most recently at Australian Galleries.  Since 2011 he has undertaken major ceramic commissions through design studio Projects of Imagination for custom tableware, lighting, bespoke tiles and artwork.

Shane has a deep interest in explanations of creative processes, which he continues to explore in his own practice and his teaching.    Both the studio environment at SoCA and his approach to teaching are informed by an intention to inspire and nurture creative emergence, open up ways of seeing, bring awareness to creative processes and foster the independence necessary to a sustainable art practice.

Neville French

Neville French

Neville French has a Master of Fine Arts and extensive experience as a ceramic artist and teacher.  He taught the TAFE Diploma of Art (Federation University, Ballarat) from 1982-2012.  He exhibits in Australia and overseas and his work is represented in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Australia.  Neville’s interest is in innovative tableware and sculptural vessels.  He is inspired by a deep connection to the landscape and is known for his expressive use of glaze and its relationship to form, tactility, weight and light.   In his teaching, Neville brings a particular focus to glaze development, utilising local clays, wood ash and reduction firing.

http://nevillefrench.com.au

Yoko Ozawa

Yoko Ozawa

Yoko Ozawa has been making ceramics since 2003.  She discovered pottery whilst working as a graphic designer and studying Japanese painting in Tokyo. Yoko’s unique pieces are inspired by Japanese slow design, an appreciation for the simple, functional and organic.   She exhibits her work in Australia, England and Japan.

https://yokoozawa.net/