OUR STUDIO: Place and Practice
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.
Teachers
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 exhibited in Melbourne since 1985, including the shows Given Time and Last Winter at Australian Galleries and Matter Form Figure Ground, curated by painter Kevin Lincoln, at SoCA. 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 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.
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.
Kate Wischusen
Kate Wischusen completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) at RMIT majoring in object-based practice and has exhibited in Europe and America. Kate’s early work explored pushing the boundaries of enamel on steel to create both wearable works and installations. A strong interest in surface development naturally led to enquiry into the possibilities of glaze and ceramic processes, furthering her research in mark-making and the role of the object as a memento. Her recent practice has focused on producing thrown tableware and deepening her understanding of ceramic materials and surfaces. In her teaching Kate nurtures students in developing individual narratives that contextualise their research and making to further their personal practice.
Georgia Black
Georgia Black has a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Australian National University, where she graduated with honours, majoring in drawing and printmaking. Since moving to Melbourne in 2018, she retrained in ceramics and completed a Master of Fine Arts at the VCA, University of Melbourne. Georgia has exhibited nationally, undertaken national and international residencies, and has work in private collections in Australia, New York and Europe. Her research is driven by a growing concern for the ways in which her ceramic practice connects to the ongoing environmental crisis. Through process-led and alternative methods of making that use ceramic waste material, Georgia’s practice explores ceramics as a medium for fostering ecological awareness and connection to place.