Sandra Black Retrospective at Art Gallery of Western Australia
Sandra Black: Holding Light is the first comprehensive survey of works by internationally acclaimed Western Australian ceramicist Sandra Black.
Spanning over 50 years of practice, the exhibition surveys important touch-points in Sandra's career from 1972 through to her current practice.
Featuring 123 works, the exhibition includes 18 works from the State Art Collection and key loans from the artist's personal collection, the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Gippsland Art Gallery, Edith Cowan University Art Collection, Curtin University Art Collection, City of Fremantle Art Collection, and private collectors.
Foregrounding the quality, delicacy, and understated confidence of her work, Sandra Black: Holding light reveals the artists concern for design, craftsmanship and the natural world. These elements converge to imbue her work with a treasure-like quality that is both enticing and intimate, yet relatable.
Since the late 1970s, Black’s process of carving and piercing slip cast and thrown clay vessels has been central to her practice, forming a key focus in this exhibition. However, Sandra Black: Holding light also showcases select examples from her various ceramic series, some of which veer away from carving processes. This diversity highlights how Black’s personal and professional experiences – including encounters with nature, love, loss, study, teaching, travel, and international residencies – have shaped her work, intersecting with and evolving from her career long practice of carving and piercing clay.
Words courtesy Art Gallery of Western Australia. Exhibition Curator: Isobel Wise
