Profile

Mark Mitchell

I grew up in NZ in a creative environment where I was always curious to see what my father had been inventing in his studio. My background in ceramics began in 1996 when I was initially working in a commercial pottery in Auckland, and then self-employed as a slip caster for 2 years.

I began my Fine Arts degree at Wanganui Quay School of Art, completing my final year of the degree at Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 2001. From 2002- 2005 I was employed as the Pottery Tutor at Hungry Creek Art School, Auckland.  Here I continued to develop mould making and throwing skills, slab building processes, and surface treatments using terra sigilatta, decals, enamels, and screen printing.

I was chosen to represent NZ as an emergent Artist at the Fule International Ceramic Museums in China in 2007, where I worked alongside a group of internationally recognised Artists for 7 weeks. This was situated in an industrial tile and brick factory in the Shaanxi province, China.

In 2009 I was recipient of a 3 month residency in Shigaraki Cultural Ceramic Park, Japan, awarded by The Japan Foundation, Sydney. This gave me the opportunity to solely focus on creating a new body of work in an internationally recognized ceramic residency programme.