Urns for unwanted Limbs

Virginia Leonard (contemporary ceramics) in conversation with Peter Adsett (paintings) at Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks. IMG X Document Photography.

Contemporary Ceramics

Virginia Leonard’s ceramics delight in the visceral. Her large vessel-like structures recall domestic everyday items, yet the familiar shapes of vases, jugs, and urns are abstracted, morphed into melting masses of sticky resin and bulging lumps.

Oozing clay, resin, and glaze forms are fired mid drip, capturing the precarious nature of Leonard’s physical approach to manipulating her chosen material.

Virginia holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design which she completed in 2001. In 2019 she won the Artist-in-Residence Prize in Finland, Open to Art Ceramic Award, Officine Saffi, Milan, Italy, and was the recipient of the Glass House/Stone House Residency in Chenaud, France.

In 2017 she won the Ceramic residency at Guldagergaard, Denmark. She won the Merit Award in the 2015 Portage Ceramic Awards, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland.

Virginia’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout Australasia and internationally, including exhibitions in Switzerland, Italy, Miami and Denmark. 

Her profile is featured in the influential Thames and Hudson book 100 Sculptures of Tomorrow, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections world-wide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Chatwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, New Zealand; Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, New Zealand; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; Musée Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland; Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton, Australia; Rigo-Saitta Collection, Geneva, Switzerland; James Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland, New Zealand; Bill Gautreaux Collection, Kansas, USA; Girls Club Collection, Miami, USA and the prestigious Ann G. Tenenbaum Collection, New York. 

 

 Catalogue

  1. Urns for Unwanted Limbs (black), Clay, lustres & resin, 26 x 20 x 20cm, AUD$3,500

  2. Urns for Unwanted Limbs (yellow), Clay, lustres & resin, 25 x 20 x 20cm, AUD$3,500

  3. Urns for Unwanted Limbs (pink & gold), Clay, lustres & resin, 21 x 16 x 16cm, AUD$2,000

  4. Urns for Unwanted Limbs (red), Clay, lustres & resin, 21 x 16 x 16cm, AUD$2,000

  5. Urns For Unwanted Limbs (blue), 2023, Clay, lustre & resin, 35 x 35 x 30cm AUD$3,500

  6. Urns for Unwanted Limbs (green), Clay, lustres & resin, 21 x 16 x 16cm, AUD$2,000

 
 

Acknowledgements

Ceramics: Virginia Leonard
Photography: Courtesy of the © artist & PAULNACHE