Past Exhibition Kirsten Coelho – In the falling light

In the Falling Light is the Drill Hall Gallery’s contribution to the 2015 Australian Ceramics Triennal exhibition program. Award-winning South Australian ceramic artist Kirsten Coelho is presenting her first substantial one-person exhibition in Canberra.

‘In the Falling Light explores the allegorical potential of objects and their relationship with light and shadow,’ she says. ‘They act as a conduit for reverie and recall.’

Coelho’s distinctive porcelain forms, very precise in shape and proportion, are Morandi-like, with a tendency to huddle together and create ‘metaphysical’ ensembles.

Her interest in colonial enamel-ware defines the colour, surface incidents and shape of her vessels.

One of the most prominent contemporary Australian ceramicists, Coelho was recently accorded the Sidney Myer Ceramic Award and her work was recently featured in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. This exhibition is curated by Karen O’Clery.

The flicker and shimmer of the paintings’ surfaces become a metaphor for walking through the landscape itself. The act of viewing becomes as physical as the act of painting, and the hills and scrub are now imbued with deep spiritual and mystical power.