Abjectified by Nadine Spalter
Nadine Spalter

The parallels that can be drawn between clay and flesh, vessel and body, containment and spillage, have informed much of my work.

There is a troubling connection between beauty and the abject, the inner and the outer of our bodies, our vessels.

Viewing the colour of fluids and finding beauty in the abject, seeing what ‘should not’ be seen, is made possible in the safe space of a gallery setting where we can engage without disgust and/or fear.

Nadine Spalter

Nadine Spalter

Nadine Spalter

Nadine Spalter was born in Vryheid, Natal, South Africa in 1971 and at the age of 19 she moved to Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2003 Nadine attended pottery classes run by Duncan Shearer at Selwyn Community Education. This sparked an immediate obsession with clay and in 2009 she began the Diploma in Ceramics at Auckland Studio Potters Centre. From 2010 Nadine started potting full-time.

Nadine has been a finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards, The Wallace Arts awards, and numerous ‘Fire and Clay’ exhibitions run by Auckland Studio Potters. Her work is held in the Wallace Arts Trust and the Suter Gallery Collections.

In 2019 Nadine together with her husband Dave founded ‘The Clay Centre’ in Mt Wellington, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, a pottery school with an extensive members area and exhibition space where the obsession with clay abounds.

Nadine Spalter holding ceramics