Emma Camden, Chamber, 2009. Collection of the Artist.
NOW features the work of Emma Camden, one of New Zealand’s most accomplished artists working in the medium of cast glass.
Since immigrating to New Zealand 20 years ago, Camden has mastered her chosen medium and produced works that have a distinctly architectural focus. This exhibition features a selection of works made between 2003 and 2015, including towers and her remarkable passage series. With a significant grant from Creative New Zealand Camden was able to produce six stunning new works for the exhibition which are her most ambitious to date.
The phrase “glass art” suggests delicacy but in contrast to blown glass, these impressive cast glass works are monumental and complex in their form. Each of the works takes between six to seven weeks to produce and the process is labour-intensive and physically demanding, requiring patience, skill and vision to transform raw material into form.
Emma Camden was born in Southsea, England, in 1966 and graduated from the University of Sunderland in the UK with a BA (Hons). In 2000 she moved to Whanganui to set up a workshop with her partner and fellow glass artist David Murray. She has received numerous awards including being the first New Zealand artist to be awarded the supreme award for the Ranamok Glass Prize (Australia) in 1999. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions and her work is in the collections of Auckland Museum, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt; Glassmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of New Zealand, Wellington. She is represented by Avid Gallery, Wellington and Masterworks, Auckland.
The exhibition was developed and toured by the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, curated by Greg Donson and made possible by the generous support of Creative New Zealand.
Emma Camden, Untitled, 2015. Collection of the Artist.