About Sandra Black
Sandra Black was born in Victoria in 1950 and came to live in Albany, Western Australia with her family in 1965. She trained as an art teacher in the late 1960s and began teaching at Governor Stirling High School in 1971. At the end of her first year Black was tasked with teaching the ceramics lessons at Governor Stirling, so she took classes at the UWA summer school with artist Joan Campbell. Black continued to teach at Governor Stirling for four years while also taking night classes in art and ceramics to further her skills. After studying at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT, now Curtin University) she was awarded an Art Teacher's Associateship in 1975 and following this, Black was appointed by Head of Craft and Design David Walker as a resident graduate and part-time tutor in ceramics at WAIT. Since that time, alongside her arts practice, Black has taught at universities, via residency programs, TAFE and community art centres. Her regular participation in national and international artist residencies extended her conceptual and material approach and aided in developing her connections with artists throughout the world.
In 1977 The Art Gallery of Western Australia acquired a set of three porcelain pieces by Black. In 1979 the National Gallery of Victoria and Powerhouse Collection acquired her work and by the mid-1980s the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of South Australia followed suit. Black went on to become internationally renowned for her works made with bone china and porcelain, and in addition to representation in national collections throughout Australia, Black now has works in institutional collections in Japan, Canada, USA, New Zealand, China and New Guinea. She is referenced in over 20 publications and has been the recipient of multiple national and international commissions and awards. In 2023 Black was honoured by the World Crafts Council Asia Pacific Region in their Craft Master Awards for the Asia Pacific region.
