NEVILLE FRENCH

Bowls 2005

AKA: Neville French

Born: 1955 Maryborough, Victoria

• Conceptual
• Established

Lives and works in Buninyong, Victoria.

NEVILLE FRENCH
Born 1955 Maryborough, Victoria, Australia.

Education
2000: M.A. Fine Art (Ceramics) RMIT University, Melbourne.
1983: Certificate of Stoneware Glazes, Brisbane CAE.
1980: Grad. Diploma of Education, Hawthorn State College, Melbourne.
1976: Diploma of Fine Art (Ceramics) Ballarat CAE.

Selected Awards
2005: International Touring & Export Grant- Arts Victoria.
2004: Craft- in - Site Grant, Craft Victoria.
2001: Project Grant - New Work VACF Australia Council.
2000: National Craft Acquisition Award, MAGNT, Darwin.
1999: Public Art Work, Ballarat Police and Law Courts.
1997: Project Grant - New Work VACF Australia Council.
1977: Australia Council Crafts Board Grant to work with Master Craftsman John Gilbert.

Teaching
1982- present, Teacher and Co ordinator- Ceramics, Arts Academy, University of Ballarat.
Artist talk - Kings College, London University 2005
External assessor RMIT University 2001/02

Selected Individual Exhibitions
2004: Galerie Hors- Saison, Melbourne.
2000: Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne.
1999: Nancy Margolis Gallery, NYC, USA.
1997: Ararat Art Gallery, Victoria; Distelfink Gallery, Melbourne.
1995: Distelfink Gallery, Melbourne.

Selected Group Exhibitions
2006:Australian Glass and Ceramics, Goettingen, Germany
2005: Porcelain, Beaver Galleries, Canberra
City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Art Gallery, Hobart
COLLECT, Australian Contemporary, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.
2004: Heresy: The Secret Language of Materials, Craft Victoria Gallery, Melbourne.
Bowl’d and Beautiful, Ceramic Art Gallery , Sydney.
Elemental, Fala Gallery, Arizona, USA.
Victorian Connection, Ceramic Art Gallery, Sydney
2003: Going Forward, Sybaris Gallery, Michigan, USA.
2002: Less is More / Less is a Bore, Brisbane City Art Gallery, Queensland.
2001: International Ceramics 2, Sybaris Gallery, Michigan, USA.
2000: Australian Ceramics, Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg, Germany.
19th National Craft Acquisition Award, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
City of Hobart Art Prize, Carnegie Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania.
1999: SOFA New York, USA, Nancy Margolis Gallery.
Contemporary Australian Porcelain, Beaver Galleries, Canberra.
White, Ceramic Art Gallery, Sydney.
1998: Contemporary International Ceramics, Sybaris Gallery, Michigan, USA.
SOFA Chicago, Sybaris Gallery, USA
SOFA New York, Nancy Margolis Gallery , NYC, USA.

Selected Collections
South Australian Art Gallery.
Queensland Art Gallery.
Museum and Art Gallery of NorthernTerritory.
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Queensland.
Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria.
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria.
Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
Castlemaine Art Gallery & Historical Museum, Victoria.
Devonport Art Gallery, Tasmania.
Artbank.
Queensland University of Technology.
University of Ballarat, Victoria
Banyule City Collection, Victoria.
City of Inagawa, Japan.
Sydney Casino





Selected Bibliography
Stephen Bowers, Australian Contemporary, A Survey of the Sense of Place, Ceramics Art & Perception, No 58, 2005
Kevin White, The Porcelain Bowl Redefined, Craft Arts International, No 47, 1999-2000.
Helen Stephens, Simple Slam: A Ceramic Aesthetic, Ceramics Art and Perception, No 38, 1999.
Monument Architecture & Design, No19, Still-Life Ceramics of Neville French, 1997.
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Thought and Action in Tune ,Ceramics Art and Perception, No 27, 1997.



Statement

My work involves an exploration of elemental vessels.
I try to distil an essence of purity and evoke notions of quietude and transcendence through the expressive use of glaze and its relationship to form, tactility, space and light.
Glazes are layered and fused to the porcelain body to develop the depth, luminosity and the colour nuance that parallels the softness and solidity of the wheel-thrown and altered forms.
The idiosyncratic nature of glaze stimulates the imagination. It evokes associations with the natural environment and alludes to a meditative infinity.

Neville French