Steph Wallace is a ceramic artist working on Wadawurrung country in Ballarat, Victoria. Born in the UK, her practice combines traditional techniques with experimental approaches to weave narratives reflecting the complexities of cultural identity.
Wallace has a BA in Ceramics from Edinburgh College of Art and studied at Leeds Arts University in the UK. She has lectured at Federation University, is an ambassador for the UNESCO Creative Cities network and is co-founder of the Ballarat Clay Collective.
Wallace has works in public art collections including the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Federation University and the Australian Centre for Rare Trades and Lost Arts. The artist’s work has been shown with The Art Gallery of Ballarat, Craft Victoria, Melbourne Design Week, White Night, Sydney Craft Week, Manly Art Museum and Gallery, London Potters and Stockroom Kyneton to name a few.
Wallace has received the Ballarat Art Foundation Award for Contemporary Art and her work has previously been selected as finalist in the North Qld Ceramic Award, the Klytie Pate Ceramic Award and the National Emerging Art Award.
Her work has featured in publications including The Age, Australian House and Garden and the Journal of Australian Ceramics.
Created in a studio shaken daily by the explosions of contemporary gold mining the works are an exploration of the land on which the artist resides. This landscape has been hollowed by centuries of gold extraction and forever altered in both in its physical essence and cultural tapestry. Looking below the surface the artist seeks to honour this fractured landscape, from it’s volcanic formation of quartz, clay and gold to the scars of historical diggings, permanent reminders of its upheaval.
These architectural forms with drawn line and abstract surfaces reference this hollowed earth and disrupted terrain in a contemplation of impermanence, erosion and decay. Beyond the physical the artist seeks to express what the eye cannot see. By exploring the uncomfortable truths inherent in the social context of the region the artist seeks to hold up to the light and examine the regions colonial legacies. These works serve as examination of her peoples dark legacy, their destructive nature and contemporary attempts to heal this land and it’s people.
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