This body of work brings together a series of extraordinary talismanic wall sculptures, free standing porcelain sculptures and framed relief works. The freestanding sculptures and handbuilt porcelain urns are an exciting new direction for Kitson. They speak to her experience of the 2019 bushfires that threatened her home studio on the south coast of NSW, and also the extraordinary capacity for regeneration she has witnessed in nature.
Kitson’s otherworldly objects combine the dexterous arts of ceramics, textiles and drawing with a strong sense of materialism and process. Overtly seductive, the works’ tension lies in resisting craft conventions and recontextualising a traditional material steeped in history. Bound with mystique and feminine power, Kitson’s sculptures are both captivating and unnerving, touching gently on a raw, surrealist nerve.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Since graduating, Kitson has received several major accolades for her work, most recently as a finalist in the 2019 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award at Shepparton Art Museum. Her work was curated in the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Primavera 2013 and Art Dubai 2014. She is represented in significant collections, such as the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank and RMIT University. Until earlier this year, Sydney born Kitson divided her time between her two studios, one on the south coast of NSW and the other in Jingdezhen, the ‘porcelain capital’ of China. Since the outbreak of COVID19 Kitson has been unable to return to her studio in China.
