artisan Cultural Delegate

Anna Varendorff

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Anna Varendorff is a mid-career practitioner (as per artisan’s published definitions) and work as an artist, craftsperson, designer and academic. She studied and began her practice in Brisbane, where she lived and worked for a decade before moving to Melbourne, where she has continued to commit her energy to her creative practice. Varendorff work regularly between Melbourne and Brisbane: creating public works for Brisbane City Council, UAP, private commissions and with a regular exhibition practice, including a 20+ year ongoing relationship with artisan. Varendorff makes sculpture and installations, small run furniture for exhibition, and she produce handmade products under the name ACV studio. Across all of these platforms she is curious and concerned with feminism, the politics of labour, and the revolutionary capacity of handmade objects. 

artisan Cultural Delegate

Catherine Large

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Catherine Large is a contemporary 
jeweller and metalsmith based in Brisbane, 
Australia. Her practice spans jewellery, 
silversmithing, and vitreous enamelling, 
using both precious and non-precious 
metals alongside found objects. Catherine’s 
work is deeply contemplative, focusing 
on material exploration and the physical 
process of making. Recent projects 
investigate the structural limits of fine silver 
and enamel, testing how thin metal can be 
while still supporting enamel and enduring 
repeated kiln firings. She also experiments 
with enamelling on existing objects and 
pre-enamelled substrates, embracing the 
technical challenges they present. With a 
long-standing engagement with enamel since 
her undergraduate studies at RMIT, Catherine 
continues to push boundaries in ways that 
are currently unique within the Australian 
context.

 
Photo of Catherine Large, 2025. Photography by Catherine Large. Image courtesy of Catherine Large.
Ternion, 2024, Catherine Large. Fine silver (999) and vitreous enamel. L-R: 4.6 x 9.8 x 4.6; 4.6 x 13.5 x 4.6; 4.6 x 4.8 x 4.6cm.

Photo of Elysha Rei and her paper installation artwork 静寂 (Seijaku): Serenity, 2025. Photography by PixelPunk. Image courtesy of Elysha Rei.
静寂 (Seijaku): Serenity, 2025, Elysha Rei. Hand cut polymer paper, gold enamel paint, eyelets, fishing wire. 25 x 1.5m. Image courtesy of Elysha Rei.

artisan Cultural Delegate

Elysha Rei

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Elysha Rei (b. 1986, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia) is a 
Japanese-Australian artist based in Brisbane 
whose practice investigates memory, 
identity, and belonging through the versatile 
medium of hand-cut paper. Rei draws on her 
Japanese-Australian heritage—particularly 
her matrilineal connection to her Japanese 
war bride grandmother from Osaka, along 
with ancestral connections to a Samurai and 
Tea Master. She holds a Bachelor of Visual 
Arts (USQ), an MBA (QUT), and is currently 
completing a PhD at QUT focused on Nikkei 
Australian histories in contemporary arts 
practice. She also serves as Chair of Nikkei 
Australia, a national organisation preserving 
and promoting Japanese Australian cultural 
legacies.

artisan Cultural Delegate

Girringun Art Centre

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Established in 2008, the Girringun Art Centre is home to multi-award-winning artists and craftsmen. Girringun represents artists from nine Traditional Owner Groups: the Nywaigi, Gugu Badhan, Warrgamay, Warungnu, Bandjin, Girramay, Gulngay, Jirrbal and Djiru people.

The traditional country of these groups covers some 25,000 square kilometres of country in the state’s Far North. Objects from this country are significantly different from those of much of the rest of Australia due to the diversity of resources between land and sea. This has resulted in a vast array of implements being crafted for use. 

The Bagu are based on the traditional fire making implements of the Girringun rainforest Aboriginal people. The artists have created artworks made from clay, timber and string to evoke the spirit of the old people.

As a living functioning art centre it is not unusual to see artists in the workshop developing new work and honing their craft. The stories and environments of this ancient culture are being transformed daily into visual images and designs by weavers, painters, potters, textile artists, and makers of traditional objects. These artists bring to life the unique cultural story and expression of the distinctive Aboriginal rainforest art traditions and culture of the Girringun region, to share with the world.

 
Logo of Girringun Art Centre.
Bagu (The Shape of Time exhibition view at artisan), 2024, Various artists at Girringun Art Centre. Ceramics. Photography by Michelle Bowden. Image courtesy of Girringun Art Centre.

 
Logo of Hope Vale Arts & Cultural Centre.
Ganthin (Cabbage Palm) (detail, The Shape of Time exhibition view at artisan), 2025, Esmae Bowen. Silk. 1 x 4m. Photography by Michelle Bowden. Image courtesy of Hope Vale Arts & Cultural Centre.

artisan Cultural Delegate

Hope Vale Arts & Cultural

Centre

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Hopevale Arts and Culture Centre is in the community of Hope Vale in Far North Queensland. It was established in 2009 as an extension of the community’s longstanding interest in and commitment to the visual arts.

The centre is open and accessible to all Hope Vale community members to pursue their interest in art and maintain their unique culture.

Hope Vale Arts & Cultural Centre artists: Daisy Hamlot; Wanda Gibson; Gertie Deeral; Dora Deemal; Grace Rosendale; Madge Bowen; Harold Bowen; Esmae Bowen; Shane Gibson; Pearl Deeral; Teneille Nuggins; Doreen Hart.

artisan Cultural Delegate

Tom Summers

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Tom Summers is a queer ceramic artist and product designer who is currently based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Originally starting his design career and education in fashion design, He found himself yearning for a stronger and deeper connection with the objects around us, and one that felt less disposable. After experimenting in several mediums, he found a real affinity with slab building with clay, since the cutting out of slabs and then making it into a 3D shape involves a lot of the same thinking as pattern making for clothing.

A recent alumnus of JamFactory Associate Program in the Ceramics Studio, he has refined my handbuilding practice on a surreal and personal reflection of the built environment that surrounds us, while also exploring colour through the use of lurid pigment-infused clay. My pieces reference recognisable architectural features and motifs, but sit outside of known markers of time and place, seeming simultaneously futuristic and relic-like in an expression of almost unreachable utopian vision.

 
Photo of Tom Summers and his ceramic artwork, 2023. Photography by Efrain Cabrera Mendoza. Image courtesy of Tom Summers.

Steiner Monument, 2023, Tom Summers. Unglazed porcelain paper clay. 18 x 29 x 18cm. Image courtesy of Tom Summers.

Erin Conron

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Erin Conron’s practice explores the intersection of surface, light, and materiality through the medium of glass. Using a combination of hand applied enamelling, kiln-forming and glass blowing techniques, her work investigates the optical possibilities of layering surface design on glass, inviting the viewer into a quiet dialogue between form and space. She is drawn to the dualities that glass naturally embodies, strength and fragility, opacity and transparency, and she employs these qualities to explore ideas of memory, impermanence, and the layering of experience.

Larissa Warren

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Larissa Warren is an established ceramicist, researcher and art teacher. The transformative and technical properties of her ceramic materials drive much of her practice and extends upon her passion for exploiting clay’s possibilities and boundaries. Echoing local landscapes and using raw clays found through field studies and the use of archives, she looks to geological metamorphosis and local histories when developing her concepts. On most days she can be found in her studio, an underground bunker on Tamborine Mountain.

Warren has gained national recognition through gallery exhibitions and media coverage. Recent highlights include a commission and acquisition with HoTA: Home of the Arts producing a major body of work for Here and Now: Gold Coast Triennial, an interview on ABC Radio National’s The Art Show (2022), inclusion in Thomas Hoardley's book: Nerikomi (2023), presenting at Apmere Mparntwe, the 16th Australian Ceramics Triennale, receiving the People’s Choice and Special Acquisition Award for the Clunes Ceramic Award, Art Gallery of Ballarat, VIC (2019) and winning the overall prize Siliceous Award for Ceramic Excellence (2018).

 
Photo of Larissa Warren in Ratbag Studios, 2023. Photography by Sabine Bannard. Image courtesy of Larissa Warren
SHADOW’S TOUCH, 2025, Larissa Warren. Australian fine porcelain, ceramic stains, local clay, wheel thrown, fired to 1220C -oxidation. Plum: 30x16x16cm, local terracotta: 32.5.x15x15cm. Image courtesy of Larissa Warren.

 
Photo of Leo Yip, 2024. Photography by AJ Moller. Image courtesy of Leo Yip.

Leo Yip

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Leo Yip’s works are produced under the name Ellaspede and they design and build kinetic works of art via the medium of custom motorcycles. Their journey in this field was largely due to artisan's Gallery support some 13 years ago. Ellaspede showcases some of their work at the Brunswick Street Gallery and that gave them the ability to move into their studio in West End and produce works full time. Fast forward to 2025 and approx. 1400 works later they have had the opportunity to work with this team at GoMA, showcase their works in America and been featured in multiple publications - digital and physical.

marcus bree

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marcus bree spent his childhood skating on frozen ponds, throwing snowballs and using hay bales to build dens in the English countryside. He quickly discovered that skating and snowball throwing held limited career opportunities, so he focused instead on his building skills.

After studying engineering and three-dimensional design at college, Marcus began an international career that would take him from Japan to Hong Kong to the USA, across Australia and finally to Brisbane, where he now runs his own design company. Creating little houses seemed like a natural extension to his love of making things, mixing textures and materials.

“Our Queensland Classic and Diamond models are authentic replicas of the unique Australian houses you might see as you drive around the region they represent. They reflect the identity of the people who built them and the environment they were designed for.” - Marcus Bree

 
Photo of Rick Hayward. Photography by Jack Gibson. Image courtesy of Rick Hayward.
Asym Mirror, 2023, Rick Hayward. Steam bent Ebonised Blackwood, Glass, 12k White Gold leaf and 21k Champagne Gold Leaf. 40cm x 60cm x 4cm. Image courtesy of Rick Hayward.

Rick Hayward

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Rick Hayward is a Meanjin / Brisbane based artist and maker exploring consciousness and perceptions of reality through the craft based practices of fine woodworking and verre églomisé. Embracing traditional hand tools and techniques, he accesses the meditative qualities of discipline and process as an enquiry into the human condition, culminating in multi-dimensional works that bridge subject and object.

Hayward’s work is distinguished by his approach to design as being conceptual, functional, and aesthetic. He is interested in combining materials from his crafts to explore ideas around subjective reality, using furniture making techniques as a means to explore the physicality of the human experience; how the process of making can affect his subjective experience, and how interaction with the work affects others experience.

Shannon Garson

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Shannon Garson is an artist, writer and curator with a studio practice spanning 20 years that includes commissions for festivals, exhibitions at public and private galleries, and arts advocacy. She works across a range of media primarily using drawing and thrown porcelain vessels. She also create multimedia events with photography and performance to investigate the relationship between human activity and the infinite variety of striations, spots, and marks found in nature.

Garson’s practice works on two levels producing and manufacturing, engaging with material processes and the constraints of clay and the abstract, conceptual world of philosophy, ideas and aesthetics. her creative framework involves working with a specific geographical area, investigating the geology, flora and fauna through drawing and photography and creating large bodies of porcelain vessels where the drawings flow from one to another. Work in the studio underpins her entire practice, intense, solitary work, consistently exploring the boundaries of what it is to be human in this shimmering, changeable, dazzling, world.

 
Photo of Shannon Garson, 2018. Photography by Greg Piper. Image courtesy of Shannon Garson.
The Wrack Zone, 2024, Shannon Garson. Thrown porcelain, glaze, underglaze, slip, oxides, terra siglata. Largest vessel in the image: 21.5 x 21.5 x 21.5cm. Image courtesy of Shannon Garson.

 
Photo of Sharka Bosakova at NGV Melbourne, 2023. Photography by Lee Lua. Image courtesy of Sharka Bosakova.
3D/OVA jewellery collection (details), 2022–24, Sharka Bosakova. Biodegradable PLA (polylactic acid) derived from corn starch and sugarcane, recycled sterling silver, ethically sourced neodymium magnets, marine cord from Australian family-owned business. Pieces – various sizes, approx. 2/5 x 5 x 5 cm. Images courtesy of Sharka Bosakova.

Sharka Bosakova

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Sharka Bosakova’s artistic practice centers on contemporary jewelry design that bridges traditional craftsmanship with innovative 3D additive technology, primarily expressed through her distinctive 3D/OVA jewelry collection. The work explores organic, cellular forms inspired by microscopic biological structures, particularly ovum shapes that symbolize creation, potential, and the feminine (OVA), which she further refines through hand-finishing techniques.

Bosakova’s practice is deeply rooted in the Japanese aesthetic principle of mottainai—a reverence for materials that embraces sustainability and minimizes waste. This philosophy informs not only her jewelry design but extends to her work in sustainable fashion. Each design reflects a conscious consideration of material lifecycle and modular principles. 'Carry less, create more - any way, shape or form'.

Suzy Syme & Andrew Costa

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Constructing a visual dialogue between the worlds of art, architecture, and design; Suzy Syme and Andrew Costa’s sculptural creations reveal layered intricacies of fluid, organic forms underpinned by logical geometric structures and assembly. They are the founding directors of a wholly-unique, innovative, multidisciplinary design ecosystem comprised of three interconnected studios: Costa Syme Architects, Tide Pool Designs, and Suzy Syme Art Couture.

Across all three studios, their work is united by a deep reverence for the natural world and a shared passion for creating emotionally resonant, future-focused pieces. The love of nature combined with the potent unification of art, architectural and design expertise forged their core mastery; harnessing the extraordinary potential of visual programming to conceive, ‘grow’ and craft organic sculptural designs in contemporary expression of natural phenomena.

 
Photo of Suzy Syme and Andrew Costa with their 3D printed artwork Coral Arbour. Photography by Shuwei Zhang. Image courtesy of Suzy Syme and Andrew Costa.
First Light, 2025, Suzy Syme & Andrew Costa. Biopolymer and silk organza. 200 x 80 x 50cm. Image courtesy of Suzy Syme & Andrew Costa.

 
Logo of Yalanji Arts.
2-piece Male Outfit: Cassowary Design for C2C 2024 - 582-24 (The Shape of Time exhibition view at artisan), 2024, Karen Shuan. Screenprint on 55% linen 45% cotton. Medium. Photography by Michelle Bowden. Image courtesy of Yalanji Arts.

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Yalanji Arts

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Yalanji Arts is located within the Aboriginal community of Mossman Gorge at the foothills of the world's oldest rainforest, the Daintree National Park. We are a 100% Aboriginal owned art centre, providing support and advocacy for Kuku Yalanji artist from Mossman Gorge & the surrounding area.

Yalanji Arts specialices in handcrafted ceramics, screen printed textiles and prints on paper celebrating the culture and deep respect, knowledge and connection to the richly diverse rainforest and ocean environments of Kuku Yalanji Country.