About

Claire Ellis is a Canadian-born emerging ceramic artist and designer based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. While working as a chef at the internationally acclaimed restaurant, Attica, Claire made tableware for the tasting menu and created a ceramics studio within the restaurant. Claire’s chef experience influences her work through a focus on raw materials, supply chains and deep experimentation. Her research focuses on material reuse in ceramics and incorporating transformed local by-products and waste streams into her work.

After leaving Attica to focus on ceramics in April 2021, Claire won the innovation award at the Warrandyte Pottery Expo in 2022 and was a finalist in The Churchie, Woollahra Small Sculpture, Wyndham, Little Things and Remagine art prizes as well as the Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize. Her work has been exhibited internationally and has been published in magazines, journals and books. She has been an invited guest speaker at several events including The Australian Ceramics Triennale in 2022 and at the Robin Boyd Foundation in 2023.

Claire is passionate about climate justice and aims to create opportunities for catharsis, political awareness and systems change through her work.