Dr Cathy Franzi is an established artist, who works in an interdisciplinary way across science and art. Her detailed sgraffito drawings on porcelain wheel-thrown forms are inspired by the botanical world and her attention to environment and landscape. This approach is informed by her first degree in science and is underpinned by research in the botanical sciences, natural history collections and fieldwork on location.
Cathy was awarded a PhD from the ANU School of Art & Design and received the prestigious 2016 Vice-Chancellor’s College Artist Fellowship in the Research School of Biology. She has undertaken residencies at Bundanon Trust, Fremantle Arts Centre and the Centre for Ceramics, Berlin. In early 2023 Cathy was artist-in-residence at Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany WA supported by Australia Council for the Arts funding, where she spent time in the field with scientists, undertaking research for her current exhibition.
Cathy continues to exhibit extensively, most recently in Berlin Design Week, Germany. Her work is held in numerous collections including Shepparton Art Museum, Canberra Museum & Gallery, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
Cathy is the former President of The Australian Ceramics Association and is currently a lecturer in the School of Art & Design at the Australian National University.
Looking out to sea, to the east from Sydney Harbour, and then, across the continent, looking south from King George Sound, Albany WA, I am immersed in the landscape and the vegetation hugging the coastline, similar but different. I am drawn in by the shapes and textures of leaf and flower, known and unknown, aware of those that have come before, to know the land and to discover its wonder. Cathy Franzi, 2023
