BIO:

Zoe Slee is an artist who completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts(Honours) in 2014 at the Australian National University School of Art. Since graduation she has been selected to participate in a number of national and international exhibitions and symposia. In both 2013 and 2014 she was invited to be a guest artist and speaker at international ceramics festival Awaken the Dragon in Singapore and worked as a board member on the 2015 Australian Ceramics Triennale and. In 2015 she was the youngest person ever to receive the Doug Alexander Award at the Canberra Potters Society Members Exhibition and maintained a studio practice in Australia until mid 2017, when she moved to Denmark. During this time she worked to develop a new body of research work at Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre in Denmark after being awarded an assistantship opportunity and a Personal Development Grant from the Australian Council for the Arts. Whilst in Denmark she participated in three group shows alongside many other international artists, as well as two exhibitions back in Australia in 2018, including the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize exhibition at the South Australia Museum.

Since returning to Australia Zoe has oscillated between her art practice and study, pursuing a Masters of Curation & Cultural Leadership at UNSW. In 2019 she organised and curated NEXUS: The ACT Showcase exhibition at the Australian Ceramics Triennale in Tasmania while also generating new work for MANIFEST: The Art, Craft and Design of Contemporary Australian Ceramics curated by Damon Moon for the same Triennale. After moving to Sydney to study, she has strived to find a balance between engaging and interactive curation and public programs, and her own arts practice. Most recently she has completed her Masters degree, an internship with Sculpture at Sawmillers, as well as participated in Vessel, an online group show as well as a digital residency project The Benefit of Doubt, both with MAYSPACE Online. In 2022 she curated Of Soap and Stone at ANCA Gallery in Canberra and was a finalist in the National Emerging Arts Prize. This year (2023), she was selected for the Waverley Council’s Artist in Residence program, has had an exhibition at the Bondi Pavilion Gallery and looks forward to an upcoming residency in Greece later this year.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Zoe Slee is an artistic thing maker, explores liminal planes and moments of transformation in her artistic practice. Often drawn to myths, folklore and processes of change found in nature, focusing on the macro and micro perspectives through repetitive making processes. Using clay as her starting point, she creates highly detailed surfaces and objects through a combination of different media. The resulting objects inhabit multiple perspectives and ideas, sitting in transitional zones, engaging with dualities of both the living and the dead, the hard and soft, stasis and movement. They exist to capture and discuss movement and moments of change without inhabiting or being inhibited by one set form or idea.