Becky Richards & Linda Gilbert
Tethered and Wild
14 February - 15 March
In Tethered and Wild, Linda Gilbert and Becky Richards navigate the intersection of energy and form, intuition and structure. Linda’s paintings translate unseen forces into fluid, abstract compositions—maps of movement, gravity, and connection. Becky’s ceramics, in contrast, give shape to a world both familiar and fantastical, where organic forms stretch, unfurl, and take on an almost animate presence. Together, their works blur the boundaries between material and immaterial, inviting us to sense the pulse of the earth and the unseen forces that shape it.
Becky Richards, Seabean Queen, 2025Ceramic, glaze, epoxy, 180mm dia x 650mm high
Becky Richards is an Aotearoa New Zealand artist who works across ceramics, sculpture and installation. Her ceramic works capture the animacy of organic forms, while emphasising the physical properties of clay. Each object exists as an individual creature with a distinctive personality; holding a story of care, gesture and action, and emanating a sense of liveliness. Becky’s work has been exhibited in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia.
Also a writer and educator, Becky is the current editor of Ceramics NZ magazine. In 2020 she founded MUD Studios Limited, a shared ceramics studio based in Auckland, Aotearoa, and currently works as the studio director, alongside a team of dedicated makers working in clay. She holds an MFA from the University of Auckland.
Working across sculpture and installation, Becky Richards’ recent practice has centred on the development and realisation of a hand-made, fictive realm. Her sculptures emerge from a gleeful remixing of visual data pulled from existing landscapes, aquatic life, mammals and arboreal forms, with each new ceramic creature adding to an ongoing process of fantastical world-building. Fascinated with the lumpen, unfolding realm of organic growth, Richards’ entities draw on the animacy of nonhuman forms – with playful reference to mature trees, boulders and hillocks. Familiar shapes are stylised and exaggerated, rendering the works cartoonish – they unfurl, stretch and puff out their chests.
There is a palpable transparency of process in Richards’ hand-built sculptures; their surfaces wear dappled records of fingers and palms – preserved conversations with pliable matter. Handles, lugs, flanges and dangling hoops retain soft gestures of formation, while adding ambiguous notes of implied practicality to unweildly forms. Following a child-like desire to build increasingly large constructions, some works stand as feats of creative engineering – their dynamic heft emphasising the physical properties of clay. These sculptures emanate a robust physicality, sensual tactility and material strangeness.
Richards’ installation-based projects are immersive and replete in textural detail; combining elements that range in scale – from tiny to towering – creating scenes that are often absurd yet enchanting. She strives to make work that captures a sense of the joy and nourishment that may be found in the abundant and intricate shapes and surfaces of the natural world.
Installation view, Becky RichardsL: Mount Peabody, 2025Ceramic, glaze (200mm x 500mm high)R: Ode to Trees II, 2020Ceramic, glaze, pigment (150mm x 350mm hight) 
Installation view: Linda Gilbert, 2023-2025Left to Right: Lava land, Kaipara contours, It dissolves in water, Firefly sparkle.250mm x 205mm Framed.Tāmaki Makaurau in Aotearoa New Zealand is my home. I describe my paintings as energy maps. My work is a deep dive into the unseen yet palpable energies that swirl around us, connecting to the earth, spaces, places, and sometimes people.
Using intuitive, abstract painting and mark-making techniques inspired by Visionary Artists and The Surrealists, I surrender control and let the unconscious take the lead. Often, I enlist the unseen force of gravity in my creative process, allowing it to shape the outcome.
My art has found homes in collections across Aotearoa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. I've been a finalist in six national art awards, including the prestigious Molly Morpeth Canaday and the Walker and Hall Art Awards.
I hold a Masters of Fine Arts (Hons), a Bachelor of Visual Arts, and a Bachelor of Laws, all of which have enriched my artistic journey. -Linda Gilbert
Installation view, Becky Richards, Lolly Loop Dapple-flank, 2025Linda Gilbert, It dissolves in water II, 2022
Becky Richards, Lolly Loop Dapple-flank, 2025Ceramic, glaze, epoxy, pigments350mm dia x 450mm high
Becky Richards, Bright Eyes 2025Ceramic, glaze, epoxy, glass300mm dia x 550mm high
Installation view, L: Linda Gilbert, Deep Down 2022R: Becky Richards, Seabean Queen 2025Linda Gilbert, Deep Down 2022Mixed media on mineral paper (640 x 480mm), framed
Linda Gilbert, It dissolves in water II 2022Mixed media on rock paper (810 x 610mm), framed
Becky Richards, King Snoz Column 2023Ceramic, pigment, epoxy180mm dia x 350mm high
Becky Richards, L: Master Rumples 2024 (120mm dia x 350mm high) R: Sir Rumples 2023 (130mm dia x 360mm high) Ceramic, glaze