Artist Richard Stratton’s work brings together ceramic production techniques, Modernist art histories and social narratives.

Stratton is known for making sculptural ceramic forms with intersecting planes and angles. In 2016 he was awarded an artist residency in Denmark where he researched Cubism, Constructivism and Brutalism. In these two paintings, Stratton transfers his ceramic making technique to the 2D medium of painting.

His compositions draw from his immediate environment: abstracted representations of his daily life as an artist and a stay-at-home father. He also draws on art histories and the history of pottery and explains “ceramics has played a key role to unlocking human history, helping us to date our growth via fragments of clay”. Stratton blends these insights asking us to consider links between global and local.  These works were shown in the 2017 touring exhibition Living History at The Dowse Art Museum.

Richard Stratton (born 1970, Dunedin) graduated from Otago School of Arts, Dunedin in 1993 then worked at a commercial pottery manufacturer on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. On his return to New Zealand, he began exhibiting widely throughout New Zealand and overseas. Stratton was awarded the 2012 Portage Ceramic Awards residency at Guldagergaard, Denmark, followed by an exhibition Richard Stratton: Old Zealand New at Te Uru Contemporary Gallery in 2015, and a 2016 artist residency in China. He won the 2017 Portage Ceramic Awards premier prize, and his works are included in private and public collections, notably Te Papa Tongarewa, and The Dowse Art Museum.