Elise Johnston (nee O’Neill) is a ceramic artist living in Ōtepoti Dunedin, in The South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand with her husband and two children.
After completing a BFA in 2006 at the Dunedin School of Art with a sculpture major Johnston took a side step into the field of ceramics and has been creating with clay ever since. She is a co-founder of Three Cups of Tea Ceramics, has had work included in the Pushing Clay Uphill Contemporary Ceramic Awards, the Portage Ceramic Awards, the Emerging Practitioner in Clay Awards, and has exhibited in various group exhibitions over the years and been commissioned to produce work internationally. In 2019 Elise was the Doris Lusk Artist in Residence.
Johnston’s piece Square Peg, Round Hole was awarded the premier prize at the Forsyth Barr Pushing Clay Uphill Contemporary Ceramics Awards 2022.
Johnston’s pieces combine her love of the functionality of ceramic objects with her desire to sculpt and communicate through the expressive medium of clay.
Ceramic, glaze