Long-term exhibitions

Not So Easy: Australian Design and Identity since Federation

Henry Hunter Gallery 8

Not So Easy

Not So Easy is an exhibition that draws on the TMAG Decorative Arts collection to explore the changing relationship between design and identity in Australia. The works span the period from Federation in 1901 to the early 21st century, encompassing the Arts and Craft Movement, mid-century Australiana, the Anglo-Japanese studio ceramics movement, Postmodernism and beyond. Some of the exhibition’s highlights are the a recently donated collection of works by pioneering Tasmanian potter, Violet Mace (1883-1968), mid-century Australiana from the Easterbrook Bequest collection and contemporary work by Australian Aboriginal designers and craftspersons.

Tea for Twenty Three
Tea for Twenty Three
is a small display of twenty three teapots by studio potters drawn from the TMAG collection located in the Members’ Lounge, Commissariat Store Building. The teapots date from the 1970s to 2000s and are a microcosm of the diversity of ceramics practice over that time. The collection includes the earthiest wood fired teapots through to the finest porcelain, and all stations between.

Not So Easy and Tea for Twenty Three coincide with the 15th Australian Ceramics Triennale, 1 - 4 May 2019. Included in TMAG's ceramics celebration are (Dis)placed and  Fifty Shades of Blue.

Download the full guide to TMAG's ceramic celebration here.

Images (L-R): Flower vase (detail), 1918, Ernest Finlay, glazed stoneware, presented by Erik Parris in memory of Janet Parris; Display plate: Nothofagus gunnii - Deciduous beech (detail), 2004, Lauren Black (artist); Les Blakebrough (maker); Southern Ice Porcelain Pty Ltd (retailer), glazed porcelain with printed transfer enamels and gold lustre; Lyre Bird Vase, 1994, Klytie Pate, ceramic (glazed earthenware), Taxation Incentive for the Arts Klytie Pate, 1995