Dividing Space by Susan Frost & Returning to Lines by Shane Cook.
Susan Frost
Susan Frost completed her studies at the Adelaide College of the Arts in 2008 and is an alumnus of the JamFactory Associate Program (Ceramics).
Developing a successful production range of wheel thrown porcelain vessels, Susan has produced commissioned work for Magill Estate Restaurant, Jacobs Creek Winery and the Crown Metropole.
Creating solo installations for JamFactory and the SAM Showcase at Shepparton Art Museum, she has been curated into exhibitions throughout Australia including a major touring exhibition with the Australian Design Centre celebrating the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Australian Journal of Ceramics.
In 2019 Susan undertook a 4-month self-directed residency at BKLYN CLAY in New York with funding assistance from Arts South Australia, dividing her time between studying the city’s architecture and museum collections and making work in the studio in response. This experience has shifted her practice into a slower, more research-based approach with a stronger focus on developing one-off pieces and bodies of work for exhibition.
Recent work has seen a shift away from exclusively producing on the potter’s wheel to wall based ceramic works employing graphic relief and glazed patterns and works on paper.
Susan has received numerous development grants from Arts South Australia, was a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize, Clunes Ceramic Award and the North Queensland Ceramics Award and is in the collection of The City of Whitehorse.
The diagonally split rectangle is the key to the code of Susan Frost’s works in Dividing Space. Code being the operative word here, as the split rectangle motif is flipped forwards, backwards, up and down to create new outputs of pattern and shape. Further variables are introduced in the form of colour and tone, engaging the part of our brain that registers depth. The works’ simple code switch between the motif orientation, colour palette and scale create a genealogy of variant strategies. These works also engage with something quite old – the logic of the tile.
Particular ancient and contemporary cultures are extremely sympathetic to the tile, covering their architecture both internally and externally with alternating coloured or shaped tiles to create both simple and complex patterns. The beauty of the tiled pattern is its relationship to scale – pattern is inherently endless, and only halts at the edge of a surface. The scaling of pattern to the surface of buildings generates a new emergent property – the flattening of optical space. Of course, Susan is also well versed in the physical creation of the tile, being a highly skilled ceramic artist. A visit to her studio showcases the artist’s collection of glaze formula samples, manifested as many small rectangular tiles, half dipped in glazes of various pigment density.
Colour itself is a significant concern in Susan’s drawing practice, with the artist interested in assigning a precisely consistent tone of colour across her works. The artist’s careful final selections of earthy pinks and greens, warm ochre and neutral greys complement the variant geometric designs. This palette is applied both as smooth, flat colour – a visual quality akin to powder coated steel or indeed ceramic glaze - and as tonally fluctuating washes, which give a sense of optical depth and shadow.
These drawings also have a strong visual relationship to the fold patterns of origami, with Susan’s tessellated configurations resembling speculative blueprints for some yet-unrealised three-dimensional form. That this folded form itself could be the prototype preceding a final metal structure – which has happened frequently in spacecraft engineering – keeps our attention moving between scales of dimension. In my mind’s eye, the giant unfolding titanium panel collapses back into its crisply folded paper form, and then again into its precise acrylic and pencil beginnings as a Susan Frost drawing.
Nicole Clift
Nicole Clift is a visual artist and writer. Nicole’s painting and weaving practice engages with ancient and contemporary natural philosophy to speculate on intangible planetary phenomena.
Shane Cook
Inspired by both street and country environments, nature and urban landscapes, his people and his lived experience. Shane Cook is a proud Wulli Wulli and Koa (Guwa) man with many family connections throughout Queensland. Shane was born on Kaurna Yerta (Kaurna Country/Adelaide). He has successfully followed in the footsteps, of many ancestors who were also artists and retraced family bloodlines that were lost for many years due to colonisation. Shane’s practice as an artist began from a young age learning to paint from his mother, his interests then developed further into graffiti culture, murals, photography and tattooing as he got older. These art movements are hugely prominent in Shane’s unique contemporary style he has developed which has led him to becoming a nationally recognised artist. Shane was named Mankitya which translates to ‘the scarred one’ by his Kaurna family and Elders.
Shane Cook is a proud Wulli Wulli and Koa (Guwa) man with deep ancestral ties across Queensland. Born on Kaurna Yerta, his artistic journey has been shaped by the contrast between urban and cultural landscapes. His work is a reflection of the worlds he has walked between—graffiti-lined streets and the open expanse of Country, contemporary expression and ancient tradition.
From a young age, Shane was immersed in art, first learning to paint from his mother, then carving his path through graffiti culture, murals, and tattooing. These influences remain embedded in his practice, forming a distinct contemporary style that speaks to both his lived experience and his heritage. Yet, for years, Shane felt the pull of something deeper—the need to reconnect with his family history, his Country and the stories that colonial disruption had scattered.
This exhibition is a raw and deeply personal exploration of that journey. Through original artworks, prints, and photographs taken while out on Country, Shane reflects on what it means to return home—not just physically, but spiritually. The land, the people, and the cultural knowledge passed down through generations have profoundly shaped his understanding of identity, belonging and the environment he now creates for himself as a father.
Bringing together the bold influence of street culture with the deep-rooted traditions of his people, Shane’s work is a bridge between past and present. It is a brain-drop of memory, emotion and experience—a visual storytelling of the spaces he has moved through and the connection he has fought to reclaim. This collection is more than an exhibition; it is a testament to resilience, rediscovery and the unbreakable bond between an Aboriginal man and his Country.