A ceramic artist who works in porcelain and wood has won the Gold Medal for Craft and Design at the Cardiff 2018 National Eisteddfod of Wales.
This year, Karen Mackinnon, Director of Artes Mundi, Ingrid Murphy of the Cardiff School of Art and Design along with performance artist Marc Rees were invited to select the Open Exhibition and award the prizes. They were unanimous in their decision that the honour together with the full monetary award of £5,000 should be bestowed on Zoe Preece.
The artist is no stranger to the Eisteddfod either – her ceramics were exhibited at the festival in Wrexham 2011, Carmarthenshire 2014 and Montgomeryshire. Zoe Preece who lives in Penarth, follows a number of fellow artists from the capital’s Fireworks Clay Studios who have also won the Gold Medal for Craft and Design.
Said Karen MacKinnon on behalf of the selectors, “With Zoe Preece’s work the everyday domestic space of the kitchen has become magical - a spoon fixed in mid air, filled to the brim, cups precariously stacked ready to fall and smash, cutlery and a knife are part of not separate to the wooden table, fused together.
Like many of the works in this exhibition there is something uncanny about the domestic scene she creates. Zoe Preece’s work is exquisitely made and immediately recognisable in its domesticity but again disrupted, things are not quite right, spoons held in mid air, kitchen utensils have become part of the table and the absence of people suggests that we are witnessing a moment after the party or even something sinister has taken place.”
The artist also won the Contemporary Art Society for Wales Purchase Prize at the Cardiff 2018 National Eisteddfod and the purchased work will enter National Museum Wales’ collection.
Zoe Preece’s ‘Material Presence’ is exhibited at Y Lle Celf which is located within the Senedd building at the Cardiff 2018 National Eisteddfod of Wales.
Zoe Preece’s website: http://zoepreece.com
Y Lle Celf Open Exhibition is realised in partnership with Arts Council of Wales.