Joanne Robey – Sculptor – Ceramacist
In the quiet countryside of Southwest Ireland Joanne Robey coaxes life from clay.
Entirely self-taught, she has developed a remarkable artistic voice, one that speaks in the language of animals and mythical creatures, capturing their spirit, stillness, and soul in hand-sculpted ceramic form.
Her imagination is vivid and untamed – like opening a page from the Mars edition of Alice in Wonderland, an Aladdin’s cave of other-worldliness. With each piece comes a new surprise conjured up from her endlessly fertile creative mind.
Joanne’s work carries the warmth of a deep and lifelong love for the natural world and beyond it. Hares pause mid-thought, Seals appear to breathe and Polar bears sip tea whilst chatting in the bath. Fantastical creatures emerge as though they have always existed, waiting only to be found.
There is a quiet magic in her sculptures, a sense that the clay remembers something true about the creature it has become. Welcome to the Kingdom of Joanne Robey
The journey from imagination to finished piece is as painstaking as it is passionate. Once satisfied with a sculpture, it enters a demanding three-stage firing process – first, into the kiln to harden and set the clay, then a second firing after the glazes have been applied and finally back into the kiln for a third time to fix the delicate gold and platinum lustre that gives many of her pieces their luminous, otherworldly finish. Three firings, three moments where everything hangs in the balance and anything could go wrong, It’s a labour-intensive process that demands patience and skill at every turn and it is precisely this dedication that makes each finished work so extraordinary.
The Killarney Art Gallery is proud and delighted to represent Joanne Robey along with every magical creature teased from the clay by her hands.