Elena Renker - Balancing Act

Renowned New Zealand potter Elena Renker’s work has been selected over the years for numerous awards, she has enjoyed international attention with invitations to participate in international shows, exhibitions, residency programme and has shared her craft with fellow potters abroad.

Renker’s many years of curiosity, study and tireless application of trial and error has made her work uniquely hers and very special to us. Always pushing the limits of her craft, Balancing Act will feature large scale furniture works for the first time in her storied career.

Her work in fired up to 18 hours at 1300 celsius in the wood-fired kiln she built on her North Auckland property. There’s a love for the subtle colour and wood ash deposits that affect the Shino glaze. Renker frequently adds natural elements such as pinecones and cabbage tree leaves to the firing process to achieve unexpected outcomes. 

Elena’s aim is not perfection, on the contrary, her belief is ‘imperfections make the pieces come alive, make them easier to relate to, make them more human, ’Nature’s perfection lies within its own asymmetry.’