A ceramic artist with over 45 years of professional practice working from his studio in central west NSW. A member of the International Ceramic Academy- Geneva since 1986. Greg Daly has produced an extensive body of work over this period. With over 105 solo exhibitions and contributed to extensive number of group exhibitions throughout Australia and 23 countries. His work has been acquired by over 80 public collections throughout Australia and overseas, including the National Gallery of Australia, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK; American Museum of Ceramic Art, USA; Decorative Arts Museum, Prague; Stoke-on-Trent City Museum, UK; International Ceramics Studio collection, Kecskemét, Hungary; Icheon World Ceramic Centre, Korea, and Saga Prefectural Art Gallery, Japan. Greg is also recipient of many awards Internationally and in Australia and a writer of three ceramic books on glazes and lustres.
My studio is in central west New South Wales and the view from my studio is one that allows me to see from one horizon to the other. From first light to sunset, I watch the day’s light traversing this landscape, interacting with the atmosphere, the topography and the flora. A slow symphony of colour, ever changing.
This interaction is something akin to alchemy for me. The transmutation of the base elements of photons, air and earth into precious visions of beauty. I see the first rays of light through the morning mist, glimmering silver and gold. I see sunsets through clouds and haze, glowing red and purple like a precious stone. I see the midday sun shining from a clear blue sky, filtering through the eucalypts and illuminating the vegetation, sometimes lush, sometimes sun-bleached. A myriad of colours, some subtle, some overwhelming, never the same, always changing.
The elements I use in the lustre glazes, silver and copper especially, have their own alchemical responses as they interact with the heat and atmosphere of the kiln. And like the light and landscape that inspired them, they interact to produce ever changing colours and surfaces, distilling the essence of what I see and giving the light something new with which to play.
Each work in this exhibition captures a moment in the day where the alchemy of light has produced something magical.
Greg Daly, 2022
