22 June - 27 July

Robert Baines is one of Australia’s most prominent and influential jewellers and goldsmiths with a career spanning more than 30 years. His exceptional craft skills and extraordinary body of work are being honoured with Object Gallery's Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series.

Baines has profoundly shaped Australian jewellery, object-making and international historical scholarship. With wry humour, his works challenge our conception of the world as much as they delight with their technical brilliance. A professor of RMIT University, Melbourne, where he continues to teach gold and silversmithing, Baines’s multifaceted practice encompasses his work as an artist-goldsmith, scholarship in archeometallurgy, and ongoing criticism and commentary in the field of contemporary crafts.

His internationally recognised study of archaeological treasures in gold grounds his

own craft practice, achieving a sense of continuity with his ancient colleagues and providing a platform to toy with the mythology of our own culture.

9 August - 29 September

Stephen Bowers is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary ceramic artists. Initially from Katoomba, Bowers became involved in ceramics in the late 1970s, a seminal time for Australian ceramics particularly in South Australia where the Skangaroovia Funk ethos of ceramics as an expressive medium abounded. Bowers seized the illustrative potential of ceramics and since undertaking a traineeship at JamFactory in the early 1980s, he has produced work rich in ornamentation.

Bowers practice differs from t the majority of ceramic artists, in that he does not seek to be the ‘sole creator’ responsible for every aspect of production. Instead, his primary role as decorator/designer places him within the long tradition of ceramics as a collective enterprise, from the small rural workshop to the huge manufactories that came into being with the industrial revolution.

Throughout his career Bowers has contributed considerably to the careers of many emerging talents in the craft and design industry in Australia. From 1990 – 1999 he was creative director of the JamFactory’s ceramics studio, and 2004-2010 he became Managing Director of the organisation. Bowers has taught numerous workshops, lectures and education programs, both in Australia and overseas.