Exhibitions

Sabbia Gallery is thrilled to present the solo exhibition Spirit of Place from one of Australia’s foremost and most iconic contemporary ceramic artists, Pippin Drysdale.

Following Pippin’s sell-out show at Sabbia in 2020 this exhibition brings a new body of inspiring and beautiful artworks to our Australian and international audience, each object demonstrating her deepening connection to place.

Place, for Pippin Drysdale, represents far more than geographic coordinates on a map. She is concerned with the totality of place: the geology, topography, climatic conditions, vegetation and the inhabitants, those who call this place home.

Spirit of Place is a new body of work by this illustrious artist that considers all these elements and presents a new chapter in the Breakaway Series, rooted not only in the remote Kimberley but also in coastal regions, from the Ningaloo Reef in the North West to the Fitzgerald National Park on the southern edge of Western Australia.

Among the numerous accolades over Pippin’s eighty years her recent inclusion as a finalist in this year’s prestigious Wynne Prize at Art Gallery of New South Wales is a fitting tribute to the artistic and national treasure that she is. Pippin’s recent works including the artwork in the Prize has focused her attention anew on the landscape and all it supports and is one example of the spirit of a place. This new series, which Drysdale has created for her Sydney audience, consciously looks at both the big and the small in the context of place.

A highly acclaimed international artist, Living Treasure Award 2015 recipient, Honorary Doctor for the Arts, Curtin University 2020, Master of Australian Craft and Wynne Prize finalist, Pippin Drysdale’s career as a ceramic artist spans over forty five years. Her passion for the craft merges with a love of the landscape, which has travelled across continents and in most recent years has focussed on the vivid desert landscapes of Australia. Her works evoke a timeless and breath-taking sense of space and place within finely crafted porcelain vessels, narrating the mesmerising vastness of colour experienced in the unique Australian landscape.

Pippin’s international profile has seen her artworks included in the foremost exhibitions of contemporary ceramics, and represented in some of the finest galleries. The brilliance of her works has resulted in their inclusion in hundreds of museums, galleries and private collections worldwide including the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire for the prestigious Chatsworth Collection, UK.