09/12/2025
Congratulations to Scott Brough, recipient of the Premier Award at this yearโs ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ค ๐๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด for ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ-๐๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ.
Scott Brough, based in Heretaunga, draws inspiration from ancient Japanese and Korean pottery, as well as pre-industrial European and English traditions. His winning piece, Four-Sided Bottle, resonated with Jack for its connection to pottery legacies and communities, whilst at the same time quietly asserting the evolution of a new language of form.
Congratulations to the following Merit Award Winners of this yearโs ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ค ๐๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด.
Merit Award Winner
Jess Nicholson
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The first Merit Award was presented to Jess Nicholson of ลtepoti. Rooted in ancestral connections to Rakahuri in North Canterbury โ once a key food-gathering site for her whฤnau โ Nicholsonโs work Net combines recycled clay and glass, incorporating clay from Rakahuri itself. Made with recycled clay and glass with the clay from Rakahuri, Net is a symbol of the lost connection to her ancestral awa and Kai Tahu kai practices.
Merit Award Winner
Jaime Jenkins
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The next recipient of the Merit Award celebrates the works of Jamie Jenkins, whose practice builds on her experience working alongside Laurie Steer, Francis Upritchard and Serephine Pick. Her work Stragglers, is a continuation of a series of wall-cased pieces that explore how plants and fungi persist to find their way in forgotten spaces, creeping through the cracks in the wall and reclaiming them. Made with white stoneware from Kลซaotunu, porcelain, titanium yellow slip, flashing slip and ash, Jenkinsโ piece is both delicate and defiant.
Merit Award Winner
Maak Bow
๐๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ด ๐๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ด
The final Merit Award was presented to Maak Bow for his series Like Cars Have Faces โ a collection of sculptural works exploring form, character, and emotion. Each piece suggests a body or personality, echoing the way we instinctively attribute expressions to inanimate objects, much like cars seem to have faces. Bowโs playful yet refined forms challenge expectations of what ceramics should be. They may hint at vessels or bottles, but theyโre not made to be used; instead, they function as sculptural studies in identity, perception, and the instinct to find faces and meaning in shape.
Image Credit | Scott Brough, ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ-๐๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ., Photography by Samuel Hartnett | Jess Nicholson, ๐๐ฆ๐ต | Jaime Jenkins, ๐๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด | Maak Bow, ๐๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ด ๐๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ด
Photography by Samuel Hartnett
