Join Umbrella and exhibiting artists Catherine & Warren Ogden, Ricky Emmerton and Barbara Pierce as they speak about their art praxis and artworks on display. The artists will discuss their respective exhibitions Presence, Puthurraka Mpaa (Proper Talk) and Landscapes, all on display 10 June - 10 July 2022. 

Catherine Ogden is a potter and artist based in Townsville (shown below in her home studio). She holds a Diploma of Visual Art from the Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE (Townsville) and has participated in masterclass workshops with ceramic artists including Greg Daly and Owen Rye. She has won many North Queensland awards including Umbrella’s 2020 Members’ Exhibition, and overall and section prizes for the Birdlife Awards and Hinchinbrook Art Awards at TYTO Gallery, Ingham. The artist has also been a finalist in the biennial North Queensland Ceramic Award multiple times. Her work is held in the Federation Place, Townsville collection.

Warren Ogden is a largely self-taught and experimental potter who has been working with clay for over a decade. His ceramic vessels draw influence from ancient pottery, including Japanese pots and wood fired pots. The artist has won ceramic awards in the 2020 North Queensland Ceramic Award, along with the Birdlife Awards and Hinchinbrook Art Awards at TYTO Gallery, Ingham.

Ricky Emmerton is completing a Masters of Philosophy in Creative Arts at James Cook University. The university project is titled “Awakening Kalkadoon Art: A New Dreaming,” which involves researching Kalkadoon art and culture. The project aim is to find a balanced approach to researching family knowledge combined with and compared to historical, anthropological and archaeological studies. Emmerton's work is held in the Artbank Collection in Sydney and was showcased in the exhibition From Where We Stand, a selection of landscape paintings from the Artbank collection, curated by Tony Stephens in 2018.

Barbara Pierce was born in Townsville North Queensland where she has spent most of her life except for several years when she resided in Devon in the UK. Before returning to Australia she travelled throughout the UK, Scandinavia and parts of Europe. Barbara has completed a Foundation Art Course (South Devon Technical College, Torquay) and a Diploma in Fine Art,  majoring in painting and printmaking (Townsville College of TAFE). She was awarded an overseas study/travel grant for independent research from the Visual Arts Crafts Board of Australia to travel to Orkney, Shetland and Aran in the UK in 1986. Pierce also completed artist residencies in Tasmania (Cataract Gorge) in 2014 and 2015.  Her work has toured with the Queensland Regional Art Awards 2013-14 and the 10th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial 1993-92. She has participated at the Quise Festival residency in Foshan China - Townsville’s Sister City, and in 1991 her work was represented in a group show in Iwaki Japan – another Sister City to Townsville. Her work is held in the collections of Townsville City Council, James Cook University, and in Foshan China.