RICHARD STRATTON

Richard Stratton’s ceramic stream of consciousness is the result of encyclopedic knowledge of industrial pottery technologies and unrestrained curiosity about any controversy in the social fabric. Stratton was born in Ōtepoti Dunedin in 1970. A family trip overseas in the 1980s proved formative. His recollections of encountering Thatcher’s Britain as a ten year old include seeing nuclear cooling towers disgorging plumes into the atmosphere and devouring a decorative arts ‘feast’ in cathedrals and National Trust houses.

In 1993 Stratton graduated from Otago School of Art. He travelled extensively and worked as a production thrower at commercial potteries in England and Scotland before settling in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington where he has lived and worked ever since. His first solo exhibition, Nurturing Dialectics: A Legation of Teapots was held in 2007 at Anna Miles Gallery. In 2010 Stratton was awarded the Dowse Art Museum Deane Award for Decorative Arts & Design. He took up a residency at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark in 2015. He was awarded the premier award at the Portage Ceramic Awards in 2017. His Dowse Art Museum exhibition, Living History, toured the country in 2017-8. Stratton’s work is represented in public and private collections including those of Auckland War Memorial Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Dowse Art Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa and Tūhura Otago Museum.