Amy Kennedy is a mid-career Ceramic Artist & Artist Mentor based in Melbourne. Her work is guided by a deep interest in the aesthetics of material, process and transformation. Using unique ceramic-glass materials, she has researched and developed, Amy creates sculptural works exploring concepts of energy and force, with allusion to earth’s forms and landscapes.

Amy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) Honours from RMIT University in 2006, having previously completed a Diploma of Ceramics at Box Hill Institute of TAFE. Her career highlights include being awarded residencies at The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Japan, Baer Art Center Iceland, Anderson Ranch Arts Centre, Colorado USA, and the European Ceramic Work Centre in The Netherlands.

An inquisitive, inventive approach and a unique ability to explore outside the usual expectations of clay as a material are characteristic of the work of Amy Kennedy. These forms are ingenious and original, extremely risky and very exciting. A meticulous scientific approach has led to the development of unique materials facilitating experiments with the lifting of traditional thin covering glaze layers - transforming them from an external surface into the building material itself. Extensive testing and development has produced bodies strong enough to form fine, paper-thin filaments of ceramic material to be slowly and laboriously built up into compacted, intimate and tightly layered objects.

References to other media abound in this work with intriguing hints to paper, silken fabric, delicate undercarriages of mushrooms and even delicious mille-feuille pastries. Survival of these pieces in the kiln is clearly miraculous, a feat of courage, determination and great persistence. There is a quiet energy and flowing movement in this work, hints of a gentle wind over grassland, a swirling whirlpool, the passing of seasons, human growth and change.

There is a sense of wonder and mystery in Kennedy’s sculptural forms. Depending on the way light catches the raw edges of her work, they can appear both robust and delicate, organic and architectural. This duality is explored and pushed to its limits through her work. Kennedy's ceramic works acquired by Whitehorse Art Collection represent both a unique vision of contemporary Australian ceramics and a continued artistic exploration of the vast Australian landscape.