John Parker: Ceramics

12 October - 1 December 2002 in the Entire Gallery
John Parker: Ceramics surveys the 35 year career and current work of one of New Zealand's foremost ceramicists. This is the first major exhibition of John Parker's work since 1990, and the first time his work has been presented in a public gallery on this scale. Featuring work from the major periods of his career as well as a significant new body of the white ceramics for which he is most widely known, this exhibition acknowledges Parker's achievement not only as a ceramic artist but as an artist working in any medium.

Turning their back on the organic, stoneware-based mainstream of New Zealand pottery, John Parker's ceramics have been consistently characterised by an austere beauty of form and surface. As Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins writes in the major publication that accompanies the exhibition, the work's frequent reference to twentieth-century design sources and their restrained modernist aesthetic have made them some of "the most eagerly sought after ceramic objects of the eighties and nineties."

John Parker's practise is characterised by his ability to continually push the boundaries of his chosen art form. Ever since his first solo exhibition at Auckland's New Vision Gallery in 1973, he has consistently worked in the manner of a fine artist making bodies of work primarily for exhibition while also drawing on his considerable experience in theatre and exhibition design to make work that is strongly installational.

John Parker: Ceramics and the accompanying publication not only acknowledge the accomplishment and formal rigour of Parker's work, the project also insists upon his relevance in the realm of fine arts.