136 Johnston Street welcomes Naomi Eller in exhibition, from 16 October to 9 November, 2014. The new ceramic works have been selected from a suite that fills her sun-lit studio at Northcote Pottery.

Organic forms emerge; protrusions force their way from a centre point and turn the work in on itself. Eller deposits layers – clay, wax, shellac – combining influence and intuition. For her approach here, unlike in the fields of history or philosophy, is decidedly un-academic. She likes the story – our story, your story – and plants that seed in her work.

Her ceramic sculptures go beyond the figurative and look at the body through a biomorphic lens. Though influenced by the legacy of classicism, in particular historical works from the Roman/Greco Empire and Etruscan sculpture, Eller uses a variety of coloured clays to push the boundaries of form. Combining iconography from across the natural world, Eller rounds out the physical with emotional elements allowing for assorted reactions to her ceramic pieces.

Following shows at The Alderman Art Space and C3 in Abbotsford, we are pleased to present Naomi Eller in our Collingwood space.