Panel discussion: Ceramics practice now

Join a panel discussion with ceramic-based artists Iza Lozano, Jess Nicholson, and Olivia Asher, facilitated by Objectspace deputy director Zoe Black.

Coinciding with Objectspace’s short-run foyer exhibition series this season, this discussion will insights into diverse contemporary ceramics practices in Aotearoa. The artists will reflect on the ideas, processes, and material approaches that underpin their respective exhibitions: Espejo Humeante by Iza Lozano, We used to be a mighty mauka by Jess Nicholson, and Adornment of Aggressive Purpose by Olivia Asher.

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Iza Lozano is a Mexican-born, ceramic-based artist working across sculpture, jewellery, mixed-media, and installation. Drawing on her background in ceramics and anthropology, her practice explores archaeology, ritual, and symbolism. Through processes of collecting, assembling, and experimentation, she works with clay, paper, archived materials, and glaze to develop richly textured surfaces and sculptural compositions that evoke fragments of Mesoamerican cosmology and imagined narratives. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland since 2020, Lozano has completed artist residencies at Auckland Studio Potters and Driving Creek. Her work has been exhibited in Mexico, Spain, and Aotearoa New Zealand, where she is represented by Public Record. Alongside her studio practice, she works as a ceramics tutor and technician.

Jess Nicholson (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) is a ceramic artist and pottery teacher based in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Their practice is grounded in Kāitahutaka and environmental sustainability. They consider the transitional and non-linear nature of re/connecting to whakapapa by transforming local, collected, and reclaimed materials (uku, pōhatu, oneone, ash, ceramic and glass) into ceramic forms that act as a metaphor for the self. In 2025 they exhibited with Paemanu: Ngai Tahu Contemporary Visual Art Collective at the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial in Meanjin Brisbane, were awarded the Caselberg Creative Connections Residency, exhibited Re: Wild/Mohoao/Gwyllt in Pōneke Wellington, received second place at the ILT Arts Murihiku awards and a Merit Prize at the Portage Ceramic Awards.

Olivia Asher is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based multidisciplinary artist and writer. Her practice explores intimacy, domestic space, containment and emotional experience through materially grounded forms. Working intuitively with materials, she approaches making as both tactile process and relational language, considering how objects can hold memory, feeling, and atmosphere. Asher holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts and Design (2023). Recent exhibitions include Crushing (Kaukau at Underlena, 2025), Sunkissed (Moana Fresh, 2025) and Reprise (Peep the Window, 2025)