OPEN: ABSENCE / PRESENCE

by Montessa Maack

Absence / Presence

Absence / Presence

The exhibition Absence / Presence will reflect on the theme of memory and the ways in which ceramics uniquely embody that theme. Clay can be a holder of memory; it carries deep geological time, and sensitively records touch and impression. Absence and trace can resonate in the material as powerfully as substance and form. 

The small works in this exhibition will remind us that to work with clay is to engage in dialogue between material, maker, and viewer, and between the past and the present.

In their compact scale and tactile immediacy, the ceramic works in this exhibition will ask us to come closer and become aware of bodily action in its many forms.

The exhibition will feature 80 small artworks by TACA members. Each work will be no more than 15cm deep and wide, and no more than 30cm high.

TACA and MAG&M invite submissions of ceramic artworks that respond to the theme Absence / Presence. Applications will open on 10 June 2026, and close 28 September 2026, 5pm AEST. APPLY (FROM 10 JUNE) HERE.

The exhibition of selected artworks will be presented at Manly Art Gallery & Museum alongside the TACA exhibition Bodies of Evidence: Experimentation in Contemporary Australian Ceramics from 16 April – 30 May 2027.

The Australian Ceramics Association
SQ1 Studios, 32 Bowden St, Alexandria NSW 2015
PO Box 677 Alexandria NSW 1435
Contact 02 9698 0230 Mon–Thu
mail@australianceramics.com
australianceramics.com
australianceramicstriennale.com.au

The Australian Ceramics Association acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and First Nations Peoples’ connections to land, sea, and sky.

We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded and that we are on stolen land. We pay our respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who engage with the Association, our events, and our programs.

As we gather to listen and speak we are doing so in the home of one of the longest continuous cultures of shared oral storytelling, material wisdom, and artmaking on this planet.