This joint exhibition showcases the works of two experienced and talented artists; Michelle’s pieces on paper and Sasha’s ceramics beautifully combine and complement each other to create a cohesive dialogue between their mediums.
Michelle Hungerford is a full-time practicing artist who lives and works in Tamworth, New South Wales. Landscapes are her preferred genre, and she is inspired by the New England region. Michelle commenced her formal Art Education in 1987 when she enrolled in a Fine Arts course at Tamworth TAFE. Later, she returned to study and in 2003 graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and was the recipient of the University Medal.
In 2006 Michelle held her first international solo show at New Hall, Cambridge University and in 2009, she had her second solo show at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge UK. Michelle has also exhibited widely in regional and commercial galleries and has been a finalist in many art prizes including Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting, Norville Art Prize, Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize and the Gallipoli Art Prize. In 2018 she was the winner of the Defiance Gallery Award, Paddington Art Show.
Michelle’s work is held in many private and public collections in, Australia, UK, Europe and America.
Sasha Jury-Radford grew up in Walgett, Born in an ambulance ‘19 Miles North of Coonamble’. She now lives in Tamworth, NSW. Growing up in a small country town was the building block of her interest in making the most of the simple things in life. She feels there was a harsh, imperfect beauty to living in an environment usually engulfed by drought, isolation and the elements of nature.
In Tamworth, Darren (Sasha’s husband) and two children, Sage and Xavier, live in a Romanesque inspired home. Sasha enjoys immersing herself in developing her own ceramic work whenever possible. Her work is organic in nature and the surface treatment is bold in colour, juxtaposing pattern and texture in each piece. Her beakers, bowls, shards and sculptures celebrate irregularity, imperfections and simplicity. “There is something humanly pleasing about the tangible, tactile process of creating handmade objects. I like to think that each piece I make I have held and shaped with my own hands, passing it on to someone who is attracted to the slight irregularities of each piece.”