Laurie Steer: The Abundance of Water Exhibition

Based in Mount Maunganui, contemporary artist Laurie Steer specialises in unique wood-fired ceramics. Initially trained in sculpture, Steer’s fascination with pottery led him to work under renowned late-ceramicist Barry Brickell for several years from Brickell’s base at Driving Creek Railway and Potteries, Coromandel. He credits the eminent potter with enabling him to ‘un-learn’ certain conceptual restrictions gleaned from the art school environment, leading Steer to embrace irreverent and ever-expanding approaches to forming objects from the earth, which are displayed both inside and outside of the gallery. environment.

Steer’s new installation The Abundance of Water has been specially conceived for Tauranga Art Gallery. Displaying over 100 newly fired ceramic objects, Steer’s installation uses the concept of the dinner setting as a springboard to explore ideas of consumption, value and excess. His menacing objects often feature bulges, knobs and spikes, leading us to project upon them mythical and fantastical imagery.

Exhibition runs 6 March to 20 June 2021.
Tauranga Art Gallery, Toi Tauranga is open daily from 10am to 4pm.