Photograph by Thomas McCammon
I acknowledge that the lands I live and work on are the unceded lands of the Kaurna people.
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Sam Gold is a queer non-binary early mid career South Australian artist living and working on Kaurna Yarta Pinching clay from 2013, Gold turned their hand to further pursue ceramics in earnest in 2016, bringing over a decade of training in Transpersonal Art Therapy (Ikon Institute), Furniture Design (TafeSA) and studies in Contemporary Art (UniSA, ACSA) to the medium.
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Gold's practice exists at the intersections of inner and outer landscapes, where minerals and memories converge. Through a multidisciplinary approach, they explore the poetics of the body, its animacy, and the intricate web of interconnectedness. By celebrating and highlighting queer and non-binary bodies and experiences, Gold's work seeks to disrupt and reimagine oppressive narratives.
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Gold's practice is characterised by a sense of intimacy and movement. With a desire to deepen the relationship between maker and material, Drawing from experiences of desire and sensual politics, they examine the power and politics of non-binary queer identity. This inquiry is guided by a fascination with the phenomenology of pleasure, intimacy, and the sensual, probing the boundaries between self and environment.
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Through a combination of handbuilding, wheel throwing, glazing and tapping into their earlier trade skills in furniture maker, Gold's ceramic practice embodies the magic and breadth of clay as a living material in transition. Recent works are layered meticulously with a painterly approach, evoking a sense of fluidity and water. This aesthetic is informed by the importance of boundaries and limits, and the catalytic function of limits in reaching for the edge of what's possible.
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Gold's large-scale compositions invite the viewer to consider a more intimate way of viewing, to spend time with the works and immerse themselves in the interconnectedness of bodily linguistics. By drawing upon the wisdom of the body and the expanse of non-binary queer identities, Gold creates a pulse and immediacy that catalyzes connection and intimacy.
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Informed by the concept of the open field, Gold's practice blurs the boundaries between self and other, and the larger world of minerals and animacy. Gesture and body language are used to negotiate and subvert boundaries, creating new potential for connection and intimacy. As Gold notes, "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 in which our bodies and identities are intertwined, and the ways in which we are always in a state of transition."​
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Gold is a highly awarded artist. They are the recipient of several Arts South Australia and Creative Australia grants (2019-2024) 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). Gold has exhibited extensively throughout South Australia and interstate and notably features in Primavera: Young Australian Artists 2021 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Currently a tenant at Mixed Goods Studios, and a JamFactory Alumni. Gold is represented by Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide.
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