Kate Kelleher is a contemporary ceramic artist whose practice is deeply rooted in nature and the symbolic language of flowers.

Following the passing of her sister, she created two urns for her sister’s sons. While making them, she was drawn to the flowers from the funeral and chose to adorn the tops with a large bloom on the lid of each urn. The process of hand sculpting of these flowers became cathartic, a way of honouring both loss and beauty. Flowers, with their fragility and quiet resilience, emulate life itself, they hold their grace even as they fade and return to the earth.

This profound experience reshaped her understanding of clay as more than a material. For Kate, working with clay is a meditative act, a space where memory, emotion, and reflection converge. Viewers of her work often sense this quiet dialogue, finding their own connections and recollections within her forms, instilled with calm.

Her practice involves hand building and sculpting porcelain into abundant, intricate blooms, as if held in time, each possessing a self-assured pose, balancing opulent beauty with elegance, and intricate details, they become their own circles of life.

Alongside this, her vessels demonstrate the complexity and discipline of wheel throwing. She combines several thrown pieces into a single form, altering and expanding them until they transform into sculptural works that carry both strength and grace. Their soft matt glazes lend them to an ethereal presence preluding a delicate façade; however, they carry strength and grace, inviting stillness, holding a calming presence. Like verses of poetry, her vessels speak in quiet tones, their floating open rims suggest a release of what is held within, offering depth, presence, and a mediative calm