About
Jan Downes is a ceramic artist based in Sydney, Australia. She has been practicing and exhibiting locally and internationally for the past 30 years.
Her delicate porcelain sculptures explore her experiences of landscapes, language and light, addressing concepts of fragility, translation and belonging. In the past, she produced bodies of work that examined communication and the security of the domestic space.
Southern Ice and Lumina are her porcelains of choice. Downes uses this clay body very skilfully, often pushing it to its limits, creating incredibly thin walls of clay that exhibit a beautiful translucency. In her exploration of light, she etches into the surface of thin walls of clay to provide variation in tone when the work is illuminated.
She also experiments with printmaking on clay, using screen-printing, intaglio and relief printing.
CV
Education
Master of Fine Art, University of Newcastle, 2001
Graduate Diploma in Art, University of Newcastle, 1993
Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts), Sydney College of the Arts, University
of Sydney, 1991
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Mu Gallery, Mosman, Sydney
2009 John Miller Gallery, Newcastle
2006 John Miller Gallery, Newcastle
2001 Master of Fine Art exhibition, Back to Back Gallery, Newcastle
2001 Sturt Gallery, Mittagong
Recent Group Exhibitions
2018 541 Art Space
2018 Mugged, May Space
2017 Ceramic Revisions II, May Space, Collaboration with Helen Mueller
2017 Form, Surface, Structure, Sculpture Kerrie Lowe Gallery, Newtown
2016 Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award
2016 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
2016 North Queensland Ceramic Award
1992-2015 Various exhibitions in Australia and international
Awards
2010 Ceramics Prize, Muswellbrook Open Art Prize
2002 The Artesian Art Prize, John Miller Gallery
1992 University of Newcastle Annual Student Acquisitive Prize