Jenny Orchard

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Jenny Orchard was born in Ankara Turkey, and moved as a young child to Zimbabwe where she spent her formative years, she came to Australia in

1979 as a young adult.

Her artworks reflect a sensibility born of a need to express the vibrancy and entanglement, the life force, and mutuality of our organic existence, and the worlds fragile ecology.

The works ask questions about the essential nature of who we are as humankind through references both intensely personal and universally mythical

. Using challenging belief systems, folktales, and our contemporary global precarity to reflect on the nature of our interconnected lives.

The work in this exhibition “Inhabitants of the House that Refused to Participate”, is based on her experience of selling a family home

during the pandemic and moving to a different house where her totemic guardians, family and disobedient animals, both sentient and ceramic assert a new presence,

and a reminder of the need to notice and reflect on serendipitous associations, fragility and wonder of possibility.

Jenny Orchard features in Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum as part of Clay Dynasty, a permanent survey exhibition of ceramic practice in Australia (current until March 2023)

Her work is included in the Australian National Gallery, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences Sydney, as well as many state and regional collections.

Internationally her work is represented in the Aichi Prefecture Design Centre Japan, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche Faenza, Italy and the Gail Museum, Gapyung South Korea.

She  participated in the 3rd Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale.

In 2017 she received first prize in the Sid Myer Ceramic Award and the University of Queensland Art Museum National Self Portrait prize.

Her recent international exhibitions include Art from Australia exhibition at Gallery Imazoo in Seoul and Fusions in conjunction with the Australian Ceramics Triennale.