Kirsten Coelho is regarded as one of the foremost contemporary ceramic artists working in Australia. She trained at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, the city in which she still lives and works. Based in London in the early 1990’s, she is part of a lineage of Australian artists that draw inspiration from the Anglo/Japanese studio tradition and makers such as English artist Lucie Rie. Her elegant and formal works also take cues from renowned ceramicist Gwynn Hanssen Piggott.

Coelho tends to work in series, producing clusters of forms to create a wider whole. She says: ‘My ceramics practice focuses on the exploration and reinterpretation of utilitarian ceramics, glass and metal wares. Many pieces are made in white porcelain, some with an added iron rim - suggesting an everyday metal object whilst being made in a material like porcelain that has such a wide ranging history and associations of desire and commodity. This can create a juxtaposition between the precious and the commonplace.’