This annual award provides a vital platform to showcase the diversity of contemporary clay practices in Aotearoa. Established in 2001, the Portage Ceramic Awards is a hallmark event for Aotearoa’s ceramics community, showcasing some of the best work currently being made, and serving as a platform for dialogue about developments in the ceramics field.

Te Uru is delighted to present the Portage Ceramic Awards 2022. This annual award provides a vital platform to showcase the diversity of contemporary clay practices in Aotearoa. The awards are open to all New Zealand artists both established and emerging whose work spans sculptural and domestic clay traditions as well as other disciplines, including photography and videography.

The Portage Ceramic Awards are an annual showcase of contemporary ceramics in Aotearoa. After last year’s 20-year retrospective, which brought together the winning works from 2001 to 2019, this year marks the return of the open-call competition and includes new work made throughout 2020 and 2021.

2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the Portage Ceramics Awards, which have become Aotearoa’s premier showcase for ceramic practice, organised annually by Te Uru. A special exhibition was planned to replace the traditional awards competition. Fondly known as ‘The Portage’, this year’s survey exhibition displayed all twenty winning works from previous years, spanning large scale installation to fine porcelain sculpture.

This year's event has been judged by renowned Australian potter and educator, Merran Esson. Esson has been working internationally for more than 40 years but this will be her first visit to Aotearoa. Her own work is distinctive for the textures and large forms that express the contrast between the extremes of country and city. She uses clay and glazes to reference water tanks, silos and corrugated iron, which remind us of the influence of history and place, and recall her rural childhood.

This year’s Portage Ceramic Awards was judged by American artist Bari Ziperstein. Ziperstein is at the forefront of a thriving ceramic scene in Los Angeles. Te Uru was pleased to announce local Henderson duo Sang-Sool Shim and Keum-Sun Lee as the Premier Award Winners in the 2018 Portage Ceramic Awards, for their piece, In the Beautiful Dream.

For the first time in its now 17 year history, a New Zealander has been appointed to judge the Awards, Aotearoa’s best-known survey of contemporary ceramic activity. Whanganui-based curator and writer Emma Bugden has selected finalists and winners for this year.

The 2016 judge is Janet DeBoos, an influential ceramic artist and teacher. Based in Canberra, Janet brings a wealth of experience to the awards, including a keen understanding of the social power of pottery and the varying contexts of production.

The Portage Ceramic Awards exhibition is an annual showcase for the diversity of ceramic artists throughout New Zealand. Established in 2001, the awards are the country’s best-known barometer for developments in the field of ceramics.

The Portage Ceramic Awards exhibition is an annual showcase for the diversity of ceramic artists throughout New Zealand. Established in 2001, the awards are the country’s best-known barometer for developments in the field of ceramics.

Lopdell House Gallery and The Trusts Community Foundation are delighted to facilitate the Trusts Portage Ceramic Awards 2013. This annual award provides a vital platform to showcase the diversity of talented artists nationwide who work in a medium that wins the hearts of makers, collectors and the general public like no other.

This year we’re taking the show to the city with a week-long celebration of ceramics at The Cloud during Art Week in October. The jurist for 2012, Dr. Paul Scott, awarded the Premier Award to Jim Cooper for his piece Millbrook holiday [the league for spritual discovery].

This year the renowned master potter Len Castle passed away, whose extraordinary achievements  remain an inspiration to all artists and potters across the country. The 2010 awards are judged by Janet Mansfield, potter and publisher of high repute and great experience. She has exhibited widely and is represented in most major public collections in Australia and internationally.

Lopdell House Gallery and The Trusts Charitable Foundation are pround to present the Portage Ceramic Awards 2010, now in its tenth year. This years judge Stephen Bowers is visiting from Adelaide, South Australia. Stephen is an award-winning ceramicist with works in many prestigious international institutions.

This, the ninth Portage Ceramic Awards, exhibits a wide range of creative ceramic works from around New Zealand. These works have been selected by the judge Scott Chamberlin, Professor of Ceramics at the University of Colorado. His selection this year emphasises the creative and playful side of the ceramic canon in the ongoing dialectic between fine art and craft art.

Lopdell House Gallery is pleased to announce that Grace Cochrane is this year’s judge for New Zealand’s leading ceramic awards for 2008. Born in New Zealand, she has a background in art and education, is now an independent curator and writer, and until late 2005 Grace Cochrane was the senior curator of Australian decorative arts and design at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. From a strong field of 170 entries, Grace has selected 50 outstanding finalists.

The Portage Ceramic Awards returns for its 7th year. The John Green Waitakere Artist Award is also given for the first time, and is named in memory of the ceramicist, artist and musician John Green. The judge this year is Jeff Shapiro, a ceramicist of international renown who exhibits in his native New York, in Japan and internationally. Jeff has brought a rigorous and fresh approach to the process of judging and selecting the pieces for inclusion in the exhibition.

This year’s selection, made by Australian judge, Bill Samuels, features an exciting collection of 51 pots and sculptures from across the country. Bill Samuels is Head of the Ceramics Department at the National Art School, Sydney. He has a long history and involvement both as a student, practitioner and teacher and has worked on the development of forms and glazes for about 30 years. Bill is regarded as one of the key Australian potters working in the woodfiring tradition and one of the most experienced and innovative in the use of Shino-type glazes.

The Portage Ceramic Awards showcase New Zealand’s best ceramic work and provide an avenue to look at what is being done throughout the country at a particular moment in time. This year has seen an enormous increase of entrants from a wider geographical spread around the country. The 2005 judge, Robert Bell, selected 57 pieces from 241 entered works. The result is a vivacious show of wide variety.

This year the Portage Ceramic Awards have seen artists from a broad range of backgrounds and locations, and present a wide and disparate range of styles, techniques and compositions. This years judge, Patsy Hely, is a practicing artist and University lecturer based in Canberra, Australia. Her initial ceramic training was at East Sydney Technical College, and she also holds a MA from Southern Cross University.

It is with considerable pleasure that Lopdell House Gallery, in association with the Portage Trust, present the Portage Ceramic Awards 2003. The award is now in its third year and is fast becoming a highlight of the annual arts calendar. This year’s judge, Australian ceramicist Julie Bartholomew, is a widely known and esteemed practitioner and academic, who aims to fuse ceramic tradition with new technologies, generating an ever evolving voice to ceramic practice.

This is the second year that the Portage Ceramic Awards have been staged, with the generous sponsorship of the Portage Charitable Foundation. The award has re-established ceramics as an integral part of New Zealand’s contemporary arts platform and the exhibition of finalists celebrates the richness and diversity of contemporary ceramics around the country.

It is with a considerable sense of pleasure that Lopdell House Gallery, in association with the Portage Charitable Foundation, presents the inaugural Portage Ceramic Awards, an exhibition of award winners and finalists.The judge of the Portage Ceramic Awards 2001, is Mitsuo Shoji of Japan, now based in Australia.