What an incredible night! Friday's Shared Earth opening and awards evening was everything a celebration of our clay community should be — full of colour, connection, and some seriously stunning work from our members. If you haven't made it in to see the exhibition yet, you've got until 26 September at ArtsPost — don't miss it.
A massive thank you to our judge for this year, Aaron Scythe. Aaron trained in Auckland and Sydney before falling for traditional Japanese ceramics, moving to Japan in the 1990s to study under avant-garde master Ryōji Koie. He spent sixteen years living and working in the pottery town of Mashiko, held more than sixty solo exhibitions across Japan, and now lives and works in Whanganui. We were so lucky to have him cast his eye over this year's entries — and even luckier that he shared some of his own extraordinary work with us for the exhibition. Thank you also to Saori for joining him and being part of the celebrations with us.
And the winners are…
WSP Premier Award — Duncan Shearer, Jar
Young Artist Award — Marcus Foster, Ocean Spray Bowl; Marshall Almond, Squiggly Troop
Mug Award — Geoff Lawrence, Hot Ash Spatter
On the Hook Award — John Mackintosh, The Clean Up Crew
WSP President's Award — Lisa Sinclair, Indisposable
Best Use of Underglaze — Meg Wilshier, Shame-less
Functional Award — Libby Cameron, Two Bottles
Non-functional Award — Sarah Lee, Net
Emerging Artist Award — Bhakti Patel, Nudibranchia of Aotearoa
Merit Award — Xanthe McHarg, Modern Sediment
Merit Award — Tina Carey, Treasures Box
Merit Award — Dianne Caton, My Love of Protea's
Ngā Ringa Uku – Māori Clay Practitioner Award — Andy Mackay, Crazed Ripples
Congratulations to every single one of you — and to everyone who entered. Putting your work up for judging takes courage, and we're so proud of what this exhibition represents every year.
Of course none of this happens without our incredibly generous sponsors, and we want to say a huge thank you to: Bot Pots (Merit Awards), Decopot (Ngā Ringa Uku – Māori Clay Practitioner, Functional and Non-functional Awards), CCG (Emerging Artist Award), Kiwi Underglaze (Best Use of Underglaze), Yasmin and Mark Davis (On the Hook Award), and Jenni Taris and Janet Smith (Mug Award). And thank you to our own President, Caroline Hamilton, for sponsoring the President's Award.
A special thank you as well to Yasmin Davis, Jenni Taris, Janet Smith, Riann Ahmadi and Annelize du Toit - the exhibition install team, who put in so many hours behind the scenes to get the gallery looking so beautiful for opening night — this exhibition simply wouldn't happen without you.
Last but not least — the People's Choice Award, sponsored by Farmer Jones Organics, is still up for grabs! Voting stays open until the exhibition closes on 26 September, so if you haven't cast your vote yet, get down to ArtsPost and have your say. We'll announce the winner shortly after.
Ngā mihi nui to everyone who made Shared Earth 2026 such a special one. ❤️
