Tessa Hoser

Tessa is an Australian potter producing wheel-thrown and handbuilt forms. Her work explores the contrast between textures, colours and apparently perfect and imperfect shapes. She makes domestic ware as well as sculptural forms in her farm studio on Gundungurra and Tharawal country near Robertson, NSW.

Tessa has always been drawn to clay. Growing up in South Africa, she played barefoot with dirt and mud, amongst piles of traditional pots made in the Mozambican villages where she holidayed with her family. Unable to combine serious making and a legal career, Tessa turned to collecting and observing ceramics.

She is now a full-time potter, surrounded by green, misty farmland with rich red and black soils and soaring rainforest that tumbles down to the coast. Clean air and bountiful water create lichen-encrusted trees, fence posts and rocky outcrops. This is what informs Tessa’s most recent work, as well inspiration from her collection of pottery picked up on travels and the deep legacy of Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie.

Her work is held in private collections in the US, UK and Australia. She was awarded the Craft ACT 2021 Emerging Artist Award. Recent and current exhibitions include at the Canberra Potters Society, Powerhouse Museum shop, Crackpot Gallery, Sydney Street Gallery and Sydney Ceramics Market. Tessa is a member of the Australian Ceramics Association, Sturt Gallery & Workshops and Canberra Potters Society.

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