Joana Partyka

I love the raw emotion in Joana’s work. When Sarah and I met in her studio in 2021 we shared our feelings of powerlessness and anger at the government’s failure to act on climate change and gender discrimination. She channels these emotions into her work, creating ‘vessels of rage’ that capture her raw response to the latest infuriating news article from privileged men in powerful positions. It’s a cathartic process, made even more so through the risky and challenging method of firing the experimental works. Some do not survive this process – a reminder of the inherent fragility of life but perhaps also a comforting nod to the fact that governments can also implode.
— Miranda Johnson, Hatched Curatorial Fellow & Out of Bounds Co-Curator

Artist Profile

Ceramicist Joana Partyka’s experimental vessels are the basis of a material exploration of minerals sourced from Western Australia. In using these precious and finite materials, Partyka draws attention to the reliance of the state on this mineral wealth, and the environmental damage caused by the extractive processes to source them. Through the use of iron ore, gold, alumina, petroleum, and base metals (copper and zinc), minerals all heavily exported by WA in recent years, mixed with clay, Partyka channels her emotions of anger, despair and fury towards recent governmental policies and behaviours, particularly around the lack of action taken to lessen climate change. However, she also implicates herself in this system, as her own practice also relies heavily on these resources.

Joana Partyka has a Bachelor of Science (Ocean Science and Technology) from Edith Cowan University and a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from Curtin University. She has exhibited widely around Australia, with recent solo exhibitions at Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, and Kolbusz Space, Perth, (both 2021). Recent group exhibitions include Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, 2022; Modern Times, Melbourne, 2021; Kolbusz Space, Perth, 2021; and Midland Junction Arts Centre, Perth, 2021.

Visit her website.

PICA Salon Vernissage 2022

Joana is one of the artists in Out of Bounds (2022), curated by PICA Curator Sarah Wall and Hatched Curatorial Fellow Miranda Johnson. Her work was available for sale at PICA’s signature donor event PICA Salon Vernissage 2022 on Saturday 6 August.

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