City Gallery

Past exhibition

Katherine Smyth: A Survey

27 July–26 August 2007

Katherine Smyth is a Wellington potter. This show encompasses works made over the last sixteen years; the earliest when she was a student, the most recent this year. While the show demonstrates a diversity of forms and techniques, there are consistent avenues of enquiry. Middle Bronze Age Middle East pottery and ceramics have been an ongoing source of fascination. An interest in organic shapes is also apparent. Smyth is best known for her Fruit series, which came about after seeing an Ancient Cypriot opium pot in the form of an inverted poppy head on a 2004 trip to the Middle East. Smyth began making small jugs in the form of locally grown fruit, starting with a small fig-shaped juglet, and went on to make feijoa and tamarillo shaped jugs as well as date, lentil, and olive based works.