ROSHNI SenAPATI

CERMACIST

Roshni Senapati is an Australian ceramic artist based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Working with clay and thread, her work explores ideas of memory and connection and touches on the theme of ancestral history and cultural heritage. 

Born in India, Roshni has called Australia home for over forty years. Following a 35-year teaching career, Roshni is focusing on a studio-led exploration of sculptural vessels, working from her home studio. 

Her explorations with clay, however, began in 1983. Newly settled in Brisbane, a flyer for a hand building night class was the spark that started a journey that has continued well beyond the six-week duration of the course. Seduced by the malleable and tactile nature of clay, Roshni has kept her hands in clay as much as possible. Married to an exploration geologist, her family moved many times and there were large stretches of time when there was very little engagement with materials. When possible, she made large hand built ‘landscape’ pots and platters that reflected her changing environment. 

In 2016, Roshni decided to stop working as an educator and concentrate on her ceramic practice. She commenced formal ceramics classes at Clayschool teaching studio with Ray Cavill. Clayschool equipped her with so much more than technical knowledge and making skills. Ray broadened her clay horizons and opened possibilities. She recognised that she preferred hand building sculptural vessels that tell stories, and in time, linked her love of hand-woven textiles with her clay practice.

Roshni uses threads that have been worn or used by her mother. They are drawn from old family saris or haberdashery ephemera collected by her mother over a lifetime of textile arts. The threads allow her to discover memories and connections. In each knotted thread resides a story. It is rich in memories of people and place. Brought together through her process, the porcelain and textile vessels serve as memory-keepers, a powerful holding space of ancestral history and cultural tradition

Roshni is a winner of the Little Things Art Prize in in the ceramics category in 2022. She was selected as a finalist in the North Queensland Ceramic Awards in 2022 and 2024, the Ceramic Arts Queensland Award for Ceramic Excellence in 2021 and 2023 and the inaugural National Emerging Art Prize with Michael Reid Gallery in Sydney in 2021. 

She has exhibited in group exhibitions in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.  Her work has featured in the Winter Exhibition at Thrown Contemporary, London in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

She is one of 45 artists featured in Earth & Fire – a book released in April 2023, featuring modern potters, their tools, techniques and practices.