School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Display artist/maker:

Ray Rogers

Born: 1935, New Zealand, Otago, Waitati   Died: 2021

Ceramicist. Largely a self-taught potter, Rogers began potting for fun in 1969 while operating a petrochemical sales business in Auckland, New Zealand. He set up his first workshop in 1971 and held his first solo exhibition in Auckland in 1974. Rogers’ early work was influenced by the Leach/Hamada tradition and the work of Harry Davis and Len Castle, another New Zealand-based potter. He later worked in Waimauru, near Auckland from 1976-81.

Rogers used a gas-fired ceramic fibre kiln to make domestic ware and larger unique forms. After visiting America in 1980, he introduced pit-firing techniques to New Zealand and was awarded a grant from the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (New Zealand) to develop the technique further. He moved to Australia in 1983 to work with the Potters Society of Australia and settled in the country permanently in 1986.

Rogers enjoyed the risky and varied effects of direct contact with the fire, finding it useful “to be freed from the bonds of being too close to one’s work.” In later years he developed silver and copper lustres using combustible organic materials. Form and finish have always been of paramount importance in his work. He started using lustres in his work from 1990.

Rogers performed workshops and exhibited in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. He built a pit kiln at the 1997 International Ceramics Festival at Aberystwyth.

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

Fungoid form C1336 Ceramics



 
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