Roshni Senapati

I work with porcelain and silk thread to explore themes of memory, ancestral history and cultural connection. I make hand-built sculptural vessels which include knotted and stitched silk thread and cloth drawn from old family saris. In each knotted thread resides a story. It is rich in memories of people and place. Expanding my ceramics practice to incorporate textile elements enables me to explore family narratives through both the form and colour of the porcelain vessel, as well as through the histories enmeshed in the silk threads and cloth stitched into its walls.

Roshni Senapati is a ceramic artist based in Meanjin/Brisbane.  Born in India, Roshni has called Australia home for over forty years. Following a teaching career, Roshni is focussing on her ceramic practice focusing on a studio-led exploration of sculptural vessels, working from her home studio.

Roshni was selected as a finalist in the North Queensland Ceramic Awards in 2022 and 2024, the Ceramic Arts Queensland Award for Ceramic Excellence in 2021 and 2023 and the inaugural National Emerging Art Prize with Michael Reid Gallery in Sydney in 2021.  

 In 2022, Roshni was awarded winner of the Little Things Art Prize in the ceramics category held at Saint Cloche, Sydney. In June 2023, she featured in a duo show with Sandy Ji (as joint ceramic winners) at Gallery of Small Things in Canberra. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney and has featured in the Winter Exhibition at Thrown Contemporary, London in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

 Her work features in the book, Earth and Fire, published by Thames and Hudson in 2023.