Past Exhibition Doug Alexander

Before his untimely death at the age of thirty-six, in 1981, Doug Alexander had set up a number of workshops in rural Australia and New Zealand. During the last five years of his life he was resident potter at Cuppacumbalong Craft Centre, Tharwa, in the ACT.

Alexander’s aesthetic philosophy was greatly influenced by the East-meets-West approach championed by Bernard Leach.

Leach’s studio in St Ives, Cornwell was dedicated to producing usable objects that were aesthetically satisfying: the studio was embedded in a community which it was dedicated to serve. His practice deviated radically from the individualism typical of the modern artist.

The forms of Doug Alexander’s pots achieve an almost classical balance and proportion, while the organic earthiness of their surfaces is due to traditional glazes of rustic Japanese pottery.

His exploration of calligraphic embellishment added a touch of the Australian landscape, its leaves, grasses and flora, to the underlying orientalist premise.

The exhibition was curated by Meredith Hinchliffe.