Demonstrators

Baye Pewhairangi Riddell

Baye has exhibited in an impressive lineup of galleries throughout the world as well as in New Zealand, and is one of our best-known Maori artist potters. 

He further adds:  

Although I do work on the wheel my work at present is largely handbuilt sculptural pieces and pots. I explore Maori and spiritual themes. I use local clays blended with commercial clays to get the colour and texture and working qualities I like. Surface treatment tends to be minimal - oxides, slips and sigillata - fired in wood, gas or open firings.

Seymore May

Seymour May of Gisborne is a fulltime potter creating original and traditional style ware at his workshop and gallery, 17 Clifford Street, Gisborne, which is open 7 days a week.

Manos Nathan

Since the mid 1980's Manos has been at the forefront of the development of the Maori ceramic movement. He is the co-founder of Nga Kaihanga Uku. His involvement with clay emerged from a background of woodcarving and sculpture and his works in clay draw on a rich heritage of the customary art forms and on the Maori cosmological and creation narratives.

Nga Kaihanga Uku

Nga Kaihanga Uku is a national organisation of Maori clay workers, begun in 1986.  The ‘First Light’ 007 convention workshops will be conducted by  these five well-known clay artists who draw heavily from their culture to create their work.

Colleen e Waata-Urlich

Colleen Waata-Urlich is a self-taught artist who developed an interest in pottery while completing a degree at Auckland College of Education under the tutelage of Hillary Clark. She began to develop a specific Maori voice, encouraged by Alec Musha – a Maori potter working in the 1970s

Paerau Corneal

Paerau’s work consciously builds a link between past and present. In creating images of wahine atua (female deit ies), she is rediscovering and reclaiming a history of women that she feels has been overlooked in written and oral history or deliberately edited out.

Paerau has commented that there are very few sculptural images of Maori women outside the marae (tribal community centre). Her work places a female interpretation of form back into a wider public arena.

Wi Taepa

Wi Taepa worked as a carver before he began working with clay. With clay he felt a greater freedom because there were few of the rules that applied to working with wood. The speed of clay work suited him, too – he was able to capture an idea while it was still fresh.

He also enjoyed the unpredictable way the colours of the clay emerged naturally during firing. They included the subtle range of browns, silvers, and greys that come particularly from wood firing. He continues to use a low-tech approach, building his works by hand and using oxides and other clay slips.