Landscape, atmosphere, mood and memory are at the heart of Janetta Kerr-Grant’s ceramics practice. In her current work she explores the intersection between drawing and ceramics using clay like a diary to transcribe her surroundings. Locality is a touchstone – be it the streets and inner-city creeks of her local neighborhood, or the unfamiliar forests of rural Japan and Finland. Janetta uses clay to ground herself.
She has exhibited widely in Australia in public and commercial galleries, including Manly Art Gallery, McCLelland Art Gallery, Craft Victoria, Gosford Regional Gallery, Bett Gallery, Stockroom Gallery and Skepsi Gallery. In 2018 she was the winner of the Klytie Pate Ceramic Award. Her work has been acquired by the RMIT University Art Collection, the Manningham Art Gallery Collection and the Fiskars Artist in Residence Collection, Finland.
Janetta has been awarded international residencies in the ancient pottery town of Shigaraki in Japan in 2023 and in Fiskars, an artist collective village, in Finland in 2015. She received First Class Honours, from RMIT University in 2012, majoring in ceramics. In 2013 she was the recipient of an Art Start Grant from the Australia Council. Most recently she was selected for the 2025 Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art.
Midnight Sun, winner Klytie Pate Award, 2018