Our Tutors
They’re friendly and yes, you’ll love them!
Becky Richards
Becky Richards (b. 1988) is an Aotearoa New Zealand maker, writer and educator. She grew up in Ōtautahi, and is currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Richards holds a BFA (hons) from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, and an MFA (first class hons) from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland.
Richards’ creative practice bridges sculpture, installation, ceramics, words and workshops. Her research is led by material processes, and follows a continuous flow between the world of the mind and the realm of matter – fulfilling both her inherent need to make things, and the necessity of keeping herself happy and well.
Debbie Harris
Debbie Harris is a ceramic object-based installation artist from the Manawatū, now based in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Debbie’s love for clay and flowers are intertwined. She grew up surrounded by her Mother’s incredible garden, falling for the soft folds in flower petals. This is reflected in Debbie’s practice – her organic sculptures playfully explore the eccentric forms that can be found within the garden bed.
Debbie’s practice investigates how materials can operate in conjunction with one another to form spatial compositions akin to an imagined garden of objects.
Master of Visual Arts, (Hons First Class) 2021, AUT.
Iza Lozano
Iza Lozano (Baja California,1991) is a Mexican ceramic artist currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland.
She studied ceramics at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City where she lived and developed her practice until 2020 when moving to Aotearoa / New Zealand. Since then, she has completed artist-in-residence programs at Auckland Studio Potters and Driving Creek Pottery.
Archaeological objects from multiple cultural origins inspire Iza´s works. Using the potter´s wheel as her primary tool and terracotta or stoneware clay, she creates contrasting volumes as segments that are later assembled to constitute intricate shapes, which are often burnished with the help of rocks, spoons, and/or blades, leaving a smooth surface, naked clay and the trace of an orbital motion.
Lara Thomas
Lara Thomas is a multi-disciplinary Auckland-based artist, educator, writer and curator. Lara completed her BFA (Hons) at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2016. She also holds a BA in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Auckland. Lara comes from a background in education and is passionate about learning and teaching.
Lara’s creative practice spans ceramics, printmaking and sculptural installation, often combining these different modes of working. The works she creates are a response to her local environment and the mutually influential relationship we have with it. Found natural and waste materials play a key role in her work, which is inspired by collecting, botany, environmental philosophy and sustainability.
Lara has been working with clay since 2014 and recently completed an internship at Dryburgh Pottery Studio.
Jemma Giorza
Jemma Giorza is a potter and writer based in Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland. Jemma holds a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in History and Art History from the University of Auckland. In 2019, she graduated with first class honours in Art History. Since graduating, Jemma undertook an intensive 3 month pottery internship with Kirsten Dryburgh and has been experimenting and developing her practice since. Her ceramics practice is centred around making functional objects that bring beauty and joy to people’s daily rituals.
Debbie Barber
Debbie is an installation artist who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. After 15 years teaching art, Debbie began establishing her own art practice in 2019. Debbie is also known by her maiden name; Lawrence.
Debbie’s creative process centres around the materiality of clay. Embedded in the discipline of domesticware, the clay’s spoil create her ceramic vocabulary. These chance forms are glazed, left raw or smoked to create a conversation used in assemblages and invitations to participate and play.
Influenced by her mum’s journey with dementia and grounded in a reflective practice considering time, memory and relationships, Debbie’s textural sculptures explore connections between philosophical writings and clay.
Bronwyn Mason
Bronwyn Mason (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahine, Pākehā) is a ceramic artist, born in Toronto and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her focus swings between tactile, organic sculptures, affectionately referred to as 'weirdos' and 'new rocks made out of old rocks,' and domestic ware decorated with colour, pattern, and humour. She has shown work in group exhibitions at Allpress Gallery, Arthaus Ōrākei, and Auckland Studio Potters.
Like her art practice, Bronwyn's teaching style is relaxed and low-key, emphasising experimentation, so she feels very much at home at Mud Studios. You can find more images of Bronwyn's work - and her dog - on Instagram (@juneblune).
Kirsty McNeil
Kirsty McNeil is an artist from Kirikiriroa Hamilton who has lived and worked in London and is currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her creative practice spans sculpture, installation, and object-making, drawing inspiration from the built environment.
Kirsty’s research-based practice considers everyday encounters in urban spaces, focussing on the uniqueness of place formed through human and nonhuman interrelations. She often uses walking as a method to inform her research and sculptures.
Kirsty’s practice is materially experimental and includes ceramics, casting processes and construction. A graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, Kirsty McNeil is currently completing her Doctorate at Elam, where she has taught undergraduate sculpture papers.
Sav Mattyasovszky
Sav Mattyasovszky is an artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau who recently completed a Master of Visual Arts at AUT. Through ceramic practice, she reflects and cringes on her online coming of age as a part of Generation Z, and plays with imagery of girlhood and past and current hobbies and collections.
She is interested in recreating objects and anxieties that were important in formative moments from her childhood and adolescence, often awarding insecurities and awkwardnesses through making commemorative and recognisable objects such as vases, medals and candelabras.
Phoebe Carse
Phoebe Carse is a self taught artist from Whitianga, now based in Tāmaki Makaurau. With a background in painting and illustration, Phoebe’s pottery is colourful and ornate, taking inspiration from American traditional tattoo art and the Celtic patterns of their Scottish heritage.
Devyani Sethi
Devyani Sethi is a Tāmaki Makaurau based ceramic artist. Born in New Delhi, India she has grown up surrounded by ritualistic practices from her heritage and art. This has translated in her iterative art and design work, as she investigates the oceanic context around her to inform her ideas.
She has exhibited in Toi Tu Studio One in Ponsonby and Refinery Art space in Nelson. She is an Architectural Graduate from the University of Auckland and her drawing, titled Bhāvanā, was selected as the winning drawing for the A+W Tātuhi / Drawing Architecture: Sarah Treadwell Archive.She is a tutor of architecture and creative technologies at AUT, and part-time painter.
Skye Kelly
Tāmaki Makaurau based artist Skye Kelly discovered her love for ceramics while at Art School. Her creative practice spans ceramics, painting, collage and theatre.
As part of a three month pottery internship with Kirsten Dryburgh, she experimented with Raku firing which was a highlight and great learning curve.
Process is an integral part of her art practice, which reflects on unrealistic beauty standards, mental health and being queer, especially in the context of New Zealand. Narratives weave through her work in often playful or humorous ways.
Skye loves making ceramics and finds it soothing, cathartic and great for her mental health. Hungry Creek Art and Craft School, Diploma of Art and Craft, 2018.