Artist Profile: Issy Parker

Artist Profile: Issy Parker

Article by Elli Walsh

Having recently graduated from the National Art School, majoring in ceramics, Parker is searching for her own frames of beauty. As a young artist of Australian and African American heritage, she re-examines the ostensible ‘primitivity’ of the ceramic mode – one of humanity’s oldest artforms. Experimenting with textures and patterns on functional forms, Parker playfully prods Western ideals lodged deep within art, both historically and presently, and within one’s own perceptions of beauty.

‘My ideas of beauty are not conventional scopes of beauty. I’m inviting a new conversation – lumps and bumps are beautiful’, she explains. Each form celebrates irregularity and individuality, valorising the ‘imperfect’ as perfect.

Read the full article through the link below.

Image: Isabella Parker, Banksia
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The National Art School is proud to present The Grad Show, our major end-of-year exhibition showcasing the work of the 2025 Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) graduate students.
 
Join us for the opening night on Thursday 4 December. 

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The Grad Show
5–14 December 2025
Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate our 2025 cohort at last night's opening of The Postgrad Show.
 
The Postgrad Show is now on view across the NAS campus until 16 November.
 
Learn more and visit the online exhibition at the link in bio.
Opening tonight, The Postgrad Show.
 
Join us from 6–10pm to celebrate the work of our graduating Master of Fine Art (MFA) and Doctor of Fine Art (DFA) students, exhibited throughout the NAS campus.
 
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