Sam Gold (they/them) is a non-binary ceramic artist based on Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide Plains), South Australia. Represented by Hugo Michell Gallery and a JamFactory alumni, Gold’s sculptural practice explores the interrelation of body, material, and memory through a framework of queer ecologies and the politics of touch.

 

Drawing on a multidisciplinary background in Transpersonal Art Therapy, Furniture Design, and Contemporary Arts, their work treats clay as a living archive—each form coiled, pinched, and pressed into being, carrying the somatic residue of gesture and the trace of lived intimacy

Gold’s work unfolds at the intersection of ecological inquiry and somatic philosophy, positioning ceramics as a tactile record of bodily encounters.

 

Through layered, non porous surfaces, they evoke geological and cellular terrains—material metaphors for the fluidity, resilience, and interdependence inherent to queer identity. Their process is rooted in an embodied methodology: creating forms that not only hold memory but imbue it, where body and surface becomes the site for trace mapping and narrative inscription.

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In 2024, Gold undertook a research-led residency with the South Australian Museum’s mineral archive, where collaborations with mineralogists and site-responsive study informed a series of self-developed cobalt glazes. This work extended their conceptual framework into the language of geology—drawing parallels between sedimentary formations and the layered experiences of the non-binary body. Rather than extracting materials from place, Gold’s practice is grounded in attentive observation, field work, and non-extractive site based research, and embodied reflection—engaging with land and material as collaborator.

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Gold is a highly awarded artist, with accolades including several Arts South Australia and Creative Australia grants (2019-2024), the Helpmann Academy Grant and Undergraduate Award for Excellence (2019), the Helpmann Creative Investment Fellowship (2021), and the University of South Australia’s Australian Ceramics Council Award (2018) and Merit Award for Academic Excellence (2019). They have exhibited extensively throughout South Australia and beyond, notably in Primavera: Young Australian Artists 2021 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Currently, Gold is a tenant at Mixed Goods Studios. Gold’s ceramics are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Powerhouse Museum, Artbank, and numerous private collections.

 

Through a materially rich and emotionally charged practice, they offer a poetic expansion of ceramic language—one that registers queer temporalities, ecological memory, and the transformative power and. politics of touch. Drawing upon the wisdom of the body and the expanse of non-binary queer identities,  Gold creates a pulse and immediacy that fosters connection and intimacy.

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As Gold reflects, "The body is a map of memories, a landscape of desires and sensations that shape our understanding of self and others. As a non-binary artist, I am drawn to the ways our bodies and identities intertwine, always in a state of transition." Gold's practice blurs the boundaries between self and other, as well as the larger world of minerals and animacy. 

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