August 18, 2026
Darian Duan is pleased to announce that his work The Blue Opening (2026) has been selected as a finalist in the 2026 Biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards.
Established in 1973, the North Queensland Ceramic Awards is now in its 45th edition. The 2026 exhibition brings together ceramic artists from across Australia and will be presented at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville from 19 September 2026 to 17 January 2027. The major award, the City of Townsville Art Collection Award, is acquisitive, with the winning work entering the City of Townsville Art Collection.
This year’s judge is Australian ceramic artist Paul Davis, whose practice draws on both Western and Japanese ceramic traditions. With more than 50 years of experience, Davis has held senior roles including Head of Ceramics at Monash University and Director of Sturt Pottery. His work is represented in major public, corporate and private collections.
The Blue Opening
The Blue Opening continues Darian Duan’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between painting and porcelain.
The work brings together porcelain, glaze, painterly gesture, cutting and firing. Rather than treating porcelain simply as a completed object, Duan approaches it as a material and artistic process in which transformation, disruption and reconstruction can occur.
The final work emerges through an interaction between deliberate decisions and the contingencies of material and fire. Glaze, gesture, cutting and firing each contribute to the final surface and structure, allowing uncertainty to become part of the making process.
The work forms part of Duan’s ongoing methodology, “Destruction as Regeneration.” Within this approach, destruction is not understood as a rejection of tradition, but as a means of carrying inherited forms and materials into new possibilities. His practice explores how porcelain might move beyond its traditional associations with craft and decoration and develop an autonomous visual language within contemporary art.
The Blue Opening, 2026
Porcelain
Shadow Green Glaze
24 × 43 × 43 cm
Image courtesy of the artist.
The selection of The Blue Opening as a finalist provides an opportunity to present this ongoing research within the broader context of contemporary Australian ceramics.
Darian Duan would like to thank Townsville City Galleries and the North Queensland Potters Association for including the work in the 2026 exhibition.
2026 Biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards
19 September 2026 – 17 January 2027
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Official 2026 North Queensland Ceramic Awards information
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