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Baked Goods | a ceramics show

Baked Goods is a display of ceramic works from the State Art Collection, raising questions about the ways we categorise objects and where use ends and art begins.

The display explores the functional traditional of ‘studio pottery’ in the mid-twentieth century, which emphasised utility and beauty, alongside the more conceptual expression of ceramic makers in the later twentieth and twenty first centuries.

With works by Eileen Keys, Col Levy, Gwyn Hanssen Piggott, Peter Cooley and many more, all the works demonstrate a keen engagement with local materiality and explore systems of exchange in the production of handmade ceramics.

  • 1 September 2026 – 4 July 2027
  • FREE

curated by

Karl Sagrabb
AGWA Associate Curator of Historical Art

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From the perspective of today’s Instagram/social media-infused era of performed casualness and filtered reality, ceramics can be seen to occupy a space of tension between little platforms, local networks of making and consumption, and big platforms of technological production, distribution and brand-making. With this in mind, the vessels displayed in Baked Goods demonstrate a continual exchange between the macro and the micro and exhibit a tension between their exterior facades and the withheld interior, between aesthetics and utility.

Karl Sagrabb

AGWA Associate Curator of Historical Art

Heather McSwain Mother and Child c1957-1982. Glazed earthenware, 85 x 29 x 26 cm. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 1996. Photo: Christophe Canato.

Peter Cooley Black swan with Cygnet 2012. Earthenware, 52 x 44 x 44 cm. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through The Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2013.

Kirsten Coelho Ginger jar 2010. Porcelain, matt glaze white, banded iron oxide, 25 x 18 cm (height before base diameter). The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2012.

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott Still life with blue cup 1997. Limoges porcelain, various dimensions. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Gift of John McBride under the Cultural Gifts Program in honour of Dr Stefano Carboni (Gallery Director: 2008-2019), 2019. Photo: Bo Wong.

Bela Kotai Enclosed ceramic form 1980. Stoneware, salt glazed, 27 x 38 cm. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 1980. Photo: Bo Wong.

Catherine Opie Stump #10 2015. Black Mountain clay, 16.8 x 14.6 x 15.9 cm. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through The Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2019. © Catherine Opie, 2015. Photo: Bo Wong.

Prue Venables Flare rimmed vase and strainer 2006. Porcelain, (A) 17.5 x 13.1 x 12.4cm (vase) (B) 10.9 x 17.8 x 12.4cm (strainer). The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Peter Fogarty Design Fund, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2006. © Prue Venables, 2006.

Bernard Leach Vase c1959-c1960. Stoneware, glazed over incised decoration, 28 x 29.6 cm (diameter). The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 1984.

Darbyshire Pottery Vase (drip glaze cream and crimson) c1938-c1956. Porcelain, 29.5 x 12 cm. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Gift of the descendents of Jean Darbyshire, 2004.

Kedela wer kalyakoorl ngalak Wadjak boodjak yaak.

Today and always, we stand on the traditional land of the Whadjuk Noongar people.