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Exhibition Text
Prue Venables is an internationally recognised Australian ceramic artist who builds on the long history of the vessel in ceramics, a form shaped by both porcelain production and studio pottery. The artist's early work sits within this tradition, engaging the vessel through its established forms and its association with use. Central to the practice is the porcelain itself, worked so finely that light enters the walls of each form, an effect that asks for a degree of time and skill few pursue.
Over time, Venables' attention shifts from the individual vessel to the relationships between forms. Single vessels remain part of the practice, but it is in pairs and, more recently, large groupings that the work now takes its clearest form. Balance becomes the organising principle, with each form weighted against another, and the shapes extend well beyond the traditional vessel, which is understood less as a container than as a presence within a composition.
This attention to the space between forms is at the centre of the solo exhibition Ma (間). The character combines the sign for a gate with the sun, suggesting light passing through an opening, and the concept is long held in Japanese art, architecture and music. Ma describes the silence between raindrops or musical notes, an active presence that defines the objects and moments around it. This idea resonates with Venables' engagement with classical music, where the pause between notes gives the music its shape. Venables' forms play with the shadows and spaces within and between.
Images can convey the form, but not how light settles into porcelain this fine, or how each work shifts as you move around it. That quiet difference is found in the room, and it is there that Venables' work reveals itself.
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Prue Venables
In Repose III, 2026Limoges porcelain, hand thrown and altered19 x 46 x 20 cmAUD 20,000 -
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Prue VenablesSprites I, 2026Limoges porcelain thrown and altered13 x 28 x 8 cmSOLD -
Prue VenablesSprites III, 202622 x 29 x 10 cmLimoges porcelain thrown and alteredAUD 8,000 -
Prue VenablesDancing Sprites I, 2026Limoges porcelain, hand thrown and altered14 x 30 x 10 cmSOLD -
Prue VenablesDancing Sprites II, 2026Limoges porcelain, hand thrown and altered10 x 30 x 7 cmSOLD
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Selected News
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Loewe Craft Prize Finalist 2023
Prue Venables May 17, 2023In 2023, Prue was selected as one of only thirty finalists in the internationally esteemed Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for their exhibition at the Noguchi Museum in New York. The... -
Australian Design Centre - Treasures
Prue Venables May 8, 2024Australian Design Centre 8 May – 1 June 2024 Address: 101-115 William Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Gadigal Land Australian Design Centre presents Treasures, a special 60th anniversary exhibition. Ten of... -
Ceramics Showcase: Sempre
Prue VenablesSempre 18 October 2025 - 19 April 2026 Shepparton Art Museum Melbourne VIC Prue Venables is one of Australia’s most accomplished ceramicists, with a demonstrated mastery of porcelain. Practising since... -
Material Language
Prue VenablesCraft Victoria Watson Place, VIC 3000 September 28, 2024, 11:00 AM — November 9, 2024, 4:00 PM Material Language celebrates the work, skill and achievements of three exceptional craft-based practitioners.... -
Homo Faber 2024: The Journey of Life
Prue VenablesArt Direction by Luca Guadagnino and Nicolò Rosmarini 1 – 30 September 2024 Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini About the 2024 edition A celebration of contemporary craftsmanship Inspiring Objects – Talented... -
Australian Design Centre interview with Prue Venables
Prue Venables May 8, 2024Australian Design Centre 8 May – 1 June 2024 Artist Interview, Living Treasures Australian Design Centre · Eastside FM - 17 May 2024 - Interview with Prue Venables
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Prue Venables | Ma 間
Current viewing_room






![“[Venables’] hand-thrown porcelain vessel offers a beautiful study in space and movement within form. The yielding flexibility of Limoges porcelain...](https://static-assets.artlogic.net/w_620,h_620,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/sdcart/images/view/2797dde8850bc1ed2ebe2cbbc870e80fj.jpg)




