About the Artist
Soledad Contardo is a Chilean born Australian artist based in Sydney, Australia. Her practice explores memory, belonging, and identity, shaped by experiences of moving across many countries and cultures and expressed through tactile contrasts of texture, form, and colour. Contardo has exhibited at Kerry Lowe Gallery (now Lowe & Lee) and presented her solo exhibition Te Hosekn’ Harw at Gallery Lane Cove (2020), alongside multiple group exhibitions. She completed a Diploma of Visual Arts at TAFE Northern Beaches. Her practice has been supported through artist residencies in Vallauris, France (2024) and SkopArt, Greece (2025). She has been a finalist in several art prizes, including the Arts to Hearts Women Artists Award (2025), the Clunes Ceramic Award (2018), and the Remagine Environmental Art Prize (2024). Her work has been featured in the book Women Artists on the Rise (2025), Art Edit Magazine (2021), and The Journal of Australian Ceramics (2021), among others. She is currently working on a new body of work inspired by the textures of land our environment and the imprints they leave as a lasting markings in our memory..
Artist Statement
I create sculptural works, primarily in clay, using impression, carving, construction, and material transformation to record traces of nature, culture, memory, and lived experience. Shaped by a life of continual movement across countries, languages, and cultures, my practice reflects on how time, exposure, pressure, and change leave marks that accumulate and shape our identity and sense of belonging. I draw from nature, cultural histories, language, and personal memory to consider how we adapt to the environments and experiences around us, and how these changes leave both visible and invisible traces. Clay is central to this process because it carries the memory of its geological formation while also recording every pressure, touch, gesture, and transformation imposed upon it, holding a physical memory of what it has encountered. Through my work, I bring together personal, cultural, and environmental memory to reflect on how we are shaped by what we experience, what we carry from the places we have been, and how the marks left by change become part of who we are and where we belong.
Residencies
2025
SkopArt, GREECE
2024
AIR VALLAURIS, FRANCE
2018-2020
Lane Cove Galleries, Artist in Residence
Art Prizes
2025
2025 Arts To Hearts, The Woman Artist Award 2025 International Finalist
2024
Remagine Art Prize Finalist, Australia
2019
Clunes Ceramic Award Finalist, Australia
2018
Keane Ceramics TAFE Student Award, Australia
Publications
2025
Women Artists on the Rise book
2021
Art Edit Magazine
2021
Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 60 No.1
2020
2020
2020
TVO Article
Exhibitions
2024
Remagine, Wallarobba Arts Centre Sydney
2024
Held, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2024
Invitation au Voyage, Vallauris, France
2023
Growth, TAFE Northern Beaches Institute, Sydney
2022
Inclusive, The Shop Gallery Glebe, Sydney
2021
Metamorphosis, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2020
Be Bold, Be Brave Gallery, Sydney
2019
Burnt, Kerry Lowe Gallery, Sydney
2019
The Knowledge, Kerry Lowe Gallery, Sydney
2019
A Fresh Perspective, Kerry Lowe Gallery, Sydney
2019
Its Raining Pots, Creative Space Curl Curl, Sydney
2019
Clunes Ceramic Award Exhibition, Clunes
2019
Flux, TAFE Northern Beaches Institute, Sydney
2018
Balance, TAFE Northern Beaches Institute, Sydney
2018
Confluence, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2017
Flow, TAFE Northern Beaches Institute, Sydney
2016
Elemental, TAFE Northern Beaches Institute, Sydney
2015
Touch, TAFE Northern Beaches Institute, Sydney
Solo Exhibitions
2020
Te Hoseken Harw, The Edge of the World, Gallery Lane Cove,