About
An artist and designer, Belinda Winkler’s practice spans ceramics, sculpture, public art and design. A maker by nature, she is happiest when covered in plaster and surrounded by an array of fresh warm casts, each imbued with the tension and pressure of its creation and loaded with potential.
At the heart of her practice is the poetic notion of a sense of life within form. This notion rests on two assumptions; firstly, that curves projecting tension and energy are difficult to view with detachment. Such curves invite associations beyond the visual and the intellectual. They are evocative, and thus have the potential to generate connections, sensually, emotionally and imaginatively — they tempt touch, be that with the eyes, the hands, the memory or the imagination. The second assumption is that that the tactile dimension of these works is deeply implicated in these connections. A recurring thread within Belinda’s work is the relationship between forms, where curve almost meets curve, nearly, but not quite touching, creating a spatial tension, charged with anticipation.
Belinda recently completed her PhD through RMIT University’s School of Architecture and Design, having previously received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours at the University of Tasmania and the Australian Postgraduate Award in 2006 and a Bachelor of Education in 1986. Within her professional career to date, she received the Object Award for Studio Based Practice at the Object: New Design 2005 National Graduate Exhibition, was a Finalist in The Skin Of Corian International Design Competition in Milan in 2006, in 2010 was awarded the MONA Prize in the City of Hobart Art Prize and in 2011 was a finalist in the national Vitrify Alcorso Ceramic Award, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and received a Highly Commended Award and the People’s Choice Prize at the City of Hobart Art Prize, National Contemporary Art Survey at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2013 Belinda’s sculpture, designed objects and ceramics have been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions. She undertakes commissions for both interior and exterior designs and has work in public and private collections nationally. Belinda is represented by the Bett Gallery and lives and works in Hobart, Tasmania.
