MUDLARK - Bronwynne Cornish

Written by Lucy Hammonds, with contributions by Bronwynne Cornish, Alexa Johnston and Denis O’Connor

Photographic essay by Deborah Smith and Mark Smith.

Bronwynne Cornish has consistently broken new ground with her sculpture. She discovered clay in the late 1960s and has been in the thrall of the material ever since. Her distinctive figurative works carry a strong sense of both their material and maker; pushing boundaries and perceptions of

both contemporary craft and sculpture.

Cornish is a prolific artist and her sculpture has been exhibited regularly in New Zealand and internationally. In the early 1980s, Cornish’s large scale installations were a radical departure point from the accepted direction of New Zealand ceramics, positioning her within the woman’s art movement of the period, and cementing her reputation as an important contemporary sculptor. In the following decades Cornish continued to pursue an independent path, creating an impressive body of work that continues to challenge, captivate and inspire.

Mudlark recognises the significance of Cornish’s artistic career. It reflects on her life in clay, explores the responses to her work by some of New Zealand’s leading artists, curators,and collectors, and reasserts her important position in the development of contemporary New Zealand art.

Publisher:

MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri

1 Tennyson Street, PO Box 248, Napier 4140
RRP - $39.00