Dr. Damon Moon

Employment

From 2019/2020 Dr. Damon Moon worked with Bendigo Pottery as the founding Creative Director of CLAD, the Centre of Learning and Design, where he was involved in education and aspects of product design. From 2014 to 2018 he was Creative Director of the JamFactory ceramics studio in Adelaide, South Australia.

Qualifications

Diploma of Design, South Australian School of Art, 1979
Graduate Diploma, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 1981
Postgraduate Diploma of Fine Art, Victorian College of the Arts 1996
Master of Fine Arts, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 1997
Doctor of Philosophy, from the University of South Australia, conferred 18th December 2006 for a thesis titled In the Beginning was the Word: Bernard Leach and the Australian Studio Pottery Movement from 1940 – 1964

Awards

1976 South Australian Department of the Arts
1977 Australia Council Grant
1985 South Australian Department of the Arts
1994/5 Australia Council – project grant
1996 Australian Network for Art and Technology – project grant
1998 Asialink residency Indonesia
1999 Australia Indonesia Institute project funding AWAS! Contemporary Art from Indonesia
2000 Australia Council – project grant
2002 to 2006 MF & MH Joyner research scholarship. University of South Australia
2006 Arts SA – travel grant presentation and promotion
2009 Arts SA – project assistance presentation and promotion

Public Collections

National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Shepparton Art Museum, Bendigo Art Gallery, Castlemaine Art Museum, Powerhouse Museum of Arts and Science (MAAS).

Selected Exhibitions – as Exhibitor (from 1994)

Collaborative Projects

Icons, Saints and Crosses (Damon Moon/Gregory Pryor) Aptos Cruz Gallery, Adelaide, 1994
Milk and Honey (Damon Moon/Gregory Pryor) Arterra Gallery, 1994
Imagined Landscapes – the Tasman Map Re-configured (Damon Moon/Steven Goldate) – see below
- Imagined Landscape project listing – solo exhibitions:
  - Storey Hall Gallery, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 1999.
  - Object Gallery, Sydney 1999
  - Lucille Gallery, Munich 2000
- Imagined Landscapes project listing – curated exhibitions:
  - Patterning – Layers of Meaning in Contemporary Art curated by Merryn Gates
  - Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines 1997
  - Lahore School of Art, Pakistan 1997
  - Canberra School of Art Gallery, Australia 1997
  - Taman Budaya, Gajah Madah University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 1998
  - Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud, Indonesia 1998
  - Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia 1998
  - Gedung Pamarin Seni Rupa, Jakarta, Indonesia 1998
- Hybrid Creatures (curator Jennifer Spinks for Contemporary Art Services, Tasmania)
  - Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart 1999
  - Devenport Gallery and Art Centre 1999
  - University Gallery (Launceston?) 1999
  - Craftwest WA 2001
  - Country Arts SA regional gallery tour 2001 (Port Adelaide New Land Gallery, Kangaroo Island Gallery, Berri River Lands Gallery, Mannum Dock Museum)
  - Gladstone Regional Art Gallery 2001
  - Toowoomba regional Art gallery 2001/02
- Imagined Landscapes as part of Foldback ANAT project for the 1998 Adelaide Festival of Arts (various locations then touring during 1999 to Umbrella Studios, Townsville; Kick Arts, Cairns; 24 Hour Art, Darwin; PICA – Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth)

Damon Moon as Exhibitor, Group and/or Curated

Box curated by Suzi Attiwill for Craft Victoria, 1996
Curation (a curatorial discourse) (Postgraduate exhibition) Storey Hall Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne 1997
Wearable curated by Rifki Effendi, Gallery Padi, Bandung, Indonesia 1998
Offline curated by Kevin Murray as part of Sacred and Profane for the 1998 Telstra Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Visual Arts Program, JamFactory Gallery. (Damon Moon work Object Lesson 1996 featured p. 92 exhibition catalogue )
1999 Décor curated by Brett Jones for Arts Victoria Discrete Projects
1999 The Real Thing Canberra Contemporary Art Space (ceramics by Damon Moon with an essay by Kevin Murray)
2006 Bowl Khai Liew Design, Adelaide
2017 Skepsi Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Friends and Associates Melbourne Design Week curated Tom Skeehan and Dale Hardiman
2019 Friends and Associates Melbourne Design Week curated Tom Skeehan and Dale Hardiman
Making: the Quiet Voices Waterside Pavillion, Hobart as part of the Australian Ceramics Triennale curated by Andrea Barker
Preliminary Structures CREO Gallery Melbourne Design Week curated by Eliza Tiernan and Josephine Briginshaw
Clay Dynasty at the Powerhouse Museum curated by Eva Czernis-Ryl, 2022
Sixty at the Australian Design Centre, National Touring Exhibition curated by Anna Grigson for 2022 to 2024

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1997 Craftwork West Space Gallery
1998 Untitled project – Bernas newspaper, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2002 The Edible City as part of the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy: convenor Gay Bilson, Telstra Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Adelaide
2009 Damon Moon – recent work Freeland Gallery, Sydney
2016 Messing with Modernism JamFactory, Adelaide
2018 Galleria Rubin, Milan as part of 5 Vie ART + DESIGN
2018 Shepparton Art Museum, LaTrobe University Collection – site specific work in response to the collections
2018 AC + DM: the Milan Project Galleria Rubin 5Vie Design District as part of Milan Design Week
Cast/Recast Castlemaine Art Museum, Victoria
Recent Work Stockroom gallery, Keyneton, Victoria

Curatorial Projects

Curated as part of the 1997 Melbourne Festival, West Space Gallery, Melbourne curated by Suzi Attiwill and Damon Moon
AWAS! Recent Art from Indonesia curated by Mella Jaarsma, Alexandra Kuss, M. Dwi Marianto and Damon Moon. 1999 to 2002 exhibition schedule:
- Museum Benteng Vredeburg, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
- Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra, Australia
- Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Australia
- Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns, Australia
- Woolongong University Gallery, Woolongong, Australia
- Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
- Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, Asahikawa, Japan
- Asian Fine Arts Pruss and Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- Ludwig Forum for International Art, Achen, Germany
- Gallery W139, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- May 2019 – Manifest: The Art, Craft & Design of Contemporary Australian Ceramics The Australian Ceramic’s Association member’s exhibition as part of Australian Ceramics Triennale, Hobart.

Recent design projects

2014 – 2017 Design, prototype and implement production of JamFactory ‘Thrown’ ceramic range, currently in its fourth year with sales of over 8,000 items. Design commissioned ceramics for restaurants and corporate clients including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jacob’s Creek, Fino, Penfold’s Magill Estate.
2017 Studio collaboration (ceramic light fittings) with Genison Studio on ‘Vietnextdoor’ restaurant interior, winner of the Gold Award for Hospitality Design (Built Environment) and Premiers Award for Collaboration at Design Institute Australia South Australia/Northern Territory Branch and shortlisted finalists for 2017 IDEA (Interior Design Excellence Awards) and for 2017 EAT DRINK DESIGN Awards.
2017 – Private residence157 Strangways Tce, North Adelaide. Khai Liew and David Clark designers, private commission, ceramic lights and objects.
2019/2020 materials development for architectural and tableware clients at CLAD, Bendigo Pottery including John Wardle Architects and Jardin homewares.

Teaching and examining

Throughout the 1980’s I taught extensively within the TAFE system as a casual tutor.

2003-2005 sessional lecturer UNISA art history/theory.
2007 examiner PhD RMIT
2016 examiner Master of Philosophy ANU
2014 – 2018 In his role as Creative Director of the ceramics studio at the JamFactory, Damon Moon is responsible for the training of up to six associates over the JamFactory’s two year specialist training program.
Guest lecturer at universities, including 2017 University of Adelaide Postgraduate Curatorial and Museum Studies in association with the Art Gallery of South Australia.
2014 – 2018 established and oversees the ceramics short course component at JamFactory in association with Adelaide Central School of Art.
2019 Sessional teaching R.M.I.T. University, Melbourne
2022 Workshop and Artist’s Talk, Fed University and Ballarat City Council

Literary CV – selected texts

Damon Moon is one of Australia’s best known writers on ceramics.

In over fifty published essays, articles, book chapters and books he has examined aspects of Australian ceramics from its role in the post-war crafts movement to its place in contemporary design, material-culture and the visual arts. In addition, his research has also included contemporary Indonesian art and curatorial practice. What follows is a list of selected texts from the mid-nineties to the present day.

Selected journal articles

Articles published in the Journal of Australian Ceramics.

45/1 – April 2006 ‘Kirsten Coelho’
47/2 – July 2008 ‘A State of Flux’
48/1 – April 2009 ‘A Workshop in Willunga’
48/2 – July 2009 ‘Damon Moon (Australia)’
48/3 – November 2009 ‘A Family Affair – the Boyds’
49/1 – April 2010 ‘Bennetts Magill Pottery – a living history’
49/2 – July 2010 ‘The Flying Scotsman’
49/3 – November 2010 ‘Perspective’
50/1 – April 2011 ‘Vale Shiga Shigeo’
50/1 – April 2011 ‘Vale Paul Soldner’
50/1 – April 2010 ‘The Divine Potter’
50/3 – November 2011 ‘A Potter’s Tale’
50/3 – November 2011 ‘White Gums and Ramoxes’
51/1 – April 2012 ‘Filthy Lucre’
51/1 – April 2012 ‘Subversive Clay: aka the 2nd Australian Ceramics Triennale’
51/1 – April 2012 ‘Tribute – David Boyd’
51/2 – July 2012 ‘Australian Ceramics Triennale’ (second article)
52/3 ‘Gwyn Hanssen Pigott’
54/3 – November 2015 ‘Susan Frost – Ceramics’
55/2 – July 2016 ‘Slight of Hand (sic) – Ceramics in The Magic Object: the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art’
56/3 – ‘Gerry Wedd, Kitschen (sic) Man’
57/2 ‘Kelly Austin and the Metaphysics of Ceramics’
57/3 ‘CLAD’
58/1 ‘Manifest: the Art, Craft & Design of Contemporary Australian Ceramics’
59/1 ‘Back to the Future: Bendigo Pottery in the 21’st C’
61/1 ‘Revolution: Australian Ceramics in a Time of Social Change’

Catalogue essays, book chapters, books

‘Curators Introduction’ and ‘Some observations on trans-cultural curation’ in AWAS! Recent Art from Indonesia Hugh O’Neill and Tim Lindsey (ed.) Indonesian Arts Society, Melbourne 1999 also AWAS! Recent Art from Indonesia Walter Spies Society, Yogyakarta and Cologne, 2000
‘Bowls, anyone?’ – catalogue essay Bowl 2006 Khai Liew Design
‘And then came Funk’ – Bibliophile 12#3 published by the Friends of the State Library of South Australia, August 2009
‘Across the Ditch: Australian Ceramics in the Post War Period’ – Cone Ten Down – studio pottery in New Zealand 1945 – 1980 by Moyra Elliot and Damian Skinner with an essay by Damon Moon, published by David Bateman, Ltd. 2009
‘Klaus Gutowski – Haute Culture’ catalogue essay October 2010
‘Post Skangaroovian’ catalogue essay South Australian School of Art Gallery 2012
‘Stephen Bowers’ in Beyond Bravura Damon Moon and John Neylon, Wakefield Press 2013 South Australian Living Artists (SALA) publication
‘Liz Williams – the Figure in Clay’ – rewritten for Wakefield Press publication Body Language, 2017
Marmalade magazine ‘The Resurgence of Australian Studio Pottery or How Everything Old is New Again’
‘Feet of Clay’ Catalogue essay Sixty 2022

Selected conference papers, forums etc.

‘The Grammar of Clay’ Verge 11th National Ceramics Conference 2006
‘Free Radicals’ – Keynote speaker Australian Ceramics Triennale, Sydney 2009
‘Critical Writing’ Subversive Clay – Australian Ceramics Triennale, Adelaide October/November 2012
‘Gwyn Hanssen Pigott’ Art Gallery of South Australia 2013
‘Ceramics as Biography’ Writing and Art panel Word Adelaide Festival 2013
‘Art Forum’ Dechaineux Theatre, School of Creative Arts UNITAS 2017
Australian Ceramics Triennale, Hobart 2019