Details
| First Name | Katerina |
| Last Name | Smoldyreva |
| Nickname | ksmoldy |
Social Media
| Website |
My Ceramics
| In the studio I like to do | Handbuilding, Sculpting |
| Clay body | Stoneware |
| Kiln Type | Electric Kiln |
| Kiln Atmosphere | Oxidation Atmosphere |
| Temperature | 1200 C |
| Glaze | I use mainly oxides and stains |
| You can buy my work from |
About Me
| Introduction | A graduate of Bashkir State University, Russia, with MA in philology and literature, and having an intense interest in art and history, I developed interest in figurative sculpture and ceramic clays very early in my career. Traveling the world, adapting to very diverse cultures, has long been a part of my life. December 2018 has brought me to the Caspian shore – the city of Baku, Azerbaijan. I left New Zealand, which had an important impact on my work, and turned towards new horizons. Before moving to New Zealand in 2016, I balanced my day job as a Head of Ceramics Arts Department and a sculpture tutor at the Dubai International Art Centre with personal creative work, which resulted in several solo and group exhibitions around the United Arab Emirates. I am now back in the UAE, live and work in a place between Al Hajar Mountains and Gulf of Oman, the Emirate of Fujairah. |
| What I Love about Ceramics | The clay is everything to me: I like to touch it, manipulate it, to feel its texture under my fingers. I am impatient of that moment when the form starts to appear and imagine how it would look like when the work is complete. It is always the ongoing experiment with form, texture and colour that excites me and makes me go on. |
| What inspires me | There have been an enormous change in my creative approach since I came to live in New Zealand. Rather than working with perfecting the surface, I am looking for those basic, rudimentary, primordial qualities of clay. Its versatility and “magic”, its stubbornness and pliancy. I am searching for the resonance between the body, material and idea. |
| What I'm working on at the moment | My work is conceptual, and yet very perceptible and physical. There are always two sides to each sculpture – the thin shell made of clay, cold and static, and those deeply human emotions, which it envelops. My desire is to reveal our vulnerabilities, anxieties and uncertainties behind that thin, fragile, skin-like capsule. |
| My CV | Education Bashkir State University, Ufa, Russia Events 21/05 – 02/06/ 2019 – Sheki International Ceramic Symposium 2019, Sheki, Azerbaijan 01/09/2018 – Ancient Goddesses Workshop – Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand 01/07-31/07/2018 – Artist Residency – Gallery 85, Whanganui, New Zealand 06/2018 – Taranaki Arts Trail 2018 – Open Studios, New Plymouth, New Zealand 03/2018 – Wanganui Open Studios 2018, Whanganui, New Zealand 06/2017 – Taranaki arts Trail 2017 – Open Studios, New Plymouth, New Zealand 23/10/2016 – African Masks Workshop – New Plymouth Potters, New Plymouth, New Zealand Exhibitions SOLO EXHIBITIONS 09/2018 The Distorted Monument – Gallery 85, Wanganui, NZ 05/2018 Darkness in a Sound – Kina Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ 02/2018 Catharsis – Gallery 85, Wanganui, NZ 02/2013 Secret Dubai – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 08/2011 Echoes of Old Persia – Majlis gallery, Dubai, UAE 02/2011 Echoes of Old Persia – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE GROUP EXHIBITIONS 12/2018 Heads Road – Rayner Brothers Gallery, Wanganui, NZ 11/2017 The Elephant in the Room – Rayner Brothers Gallery, Wanganui, NZ 09/2017 100 days Project Show – Thievery Studio, Auckland, NZ 08/2017 Little Beauties – Rayner Brothers Gallery, Wanganui, NZ 06/2017 Taranaki Arts Trail exhibition – Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, NZ 12/2016 Plate Oh! – Rayner Brothers Gallery, Wanganui, NZ 08/2016 New Plymouth Pottery Club members’ exhibition – Guest Exhibitor – JD Reid gallery, New Plymouth, NZ 11/2016 Stratford Art Society members’ exhibition – Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, NZ 04/2016 Stratford Art Society members’ exhibition – Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, NZ 11/2015 Members Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 01/2015 Omnium-Gatherum – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 06/2014 Celebrating Ramadan – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 03/2014 Contrast – Ajman Palace Hotel, Ajman, UAE 01/2014 Teachers’ Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 11/2013 Members Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 07/2013 Arts Festival – Mercato Mall, Dubai 11/2012 UAE National Day – Heritage Village, Dubai, UAE 08/2012 Postcard Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 07/2012 Summer Salon – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 11/2011 Members Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 04/2011 Old Persia and the Middle East – CORP Executive Hotel, Dubai, UAE 01/2011 Teachers’ Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE 11/2008 Members’ Exhibition – Dubai International Art Centre – Gallery 76, Dubai, UAE |
