IMAGE:
1. Dean Smith, Ground Body 2022, Stoneware, porcelain, feldspathic glaze, glass enamel, pigment, 108 x 40 x 33 cm inc. base, Courtesy the artist and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2 – 6. IN TARRA-BULGA: An exhibition by Dean Smith, Exhibition documentation, Gallery 6, Latrobe Regional Gallery, 2022. Images by Darryl Whitaker.
7. Detail of Nocturne, Dean Smith, 2022. Shown in IN TARRA-BULGA: An exhibition by Dean Smith, Gallery 6, Latrobe Regional Gallery, 2022. Image by Julia Broad.
IN TARRA-BULGA: An exhibition by Dean Smith
9 April to 24 July 2022
Gallery 6
Living in Morwell, after having lived in many parts of both Australia and New Zealand, Dean Smith takes his cues from the landscape around him.
Since he moved to the Latrobe Valley three years ago, Dean Smith has made many visits to Tarra Bulga National Park. The forms, sounds and smells experienced here has informed the work in this exhibition. The squat heavy bodied lyrebirds, the skin of eucalypts, the towering bodies of mountain ash, the hidden animal shelters, and the damp have all captured Smith’s senses. The artist has learnt that ‘bulga’ is an Aboriginal word for mountain, and that ‘Tarra’ is Charlie Tarra who guided Strezlecki and his party through Gippsland in 1840.
Smith’s ceramic works are known for his use of special effect high fire glazes combined with low fire enamels and precious metal lustres.
Dean Smith regularly exhibits with Alcaston Gallery Melbourne. In 2018 undertook a studio residency at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark. He was won several art awards, including Winner 2015 Manningham Victorian Ceramic Art Award, Silver Prize, 2012 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Winner, 2013 Clunes Ceramic Prize.