David Brokenshire (New Zealand) ceramics

David Brokenshire was a New Zealand architect and potter. He was born in Thames, New Zealand in 1925. After leaving secondary school, he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force and served for two and a half years. During his time in the air force, he developed an interest in botany and would study and sketch local plants in his spare time.

After leaving the air force, Brokenshire studied architecture at the Auckland University College School of Architecture, graduating in 1951. He worked briefly for the Christchurch City Council before working with Dunedin firm Miller, White and Dunn on buildings at the University of Otago. He then moved to Christchurch-based architects Hall and Mackenzie, where he worked on the new Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook Village, notably designing its octagonal restaurant, and various buildings for the new Ilam campus of the University of Canterbury, including the registry.

Brokenshire began more... working with pottery in 1951, alongside his wife Noeline, and became a full-time potter in 1979. He began potting by throwing on a wheel but following a workshop with Patricia Perrin in the early 1960s, who was teaching a hammer and anvil technique using large-scale coils, Brokenshire began making work through hand building.

Brokenshire's work has been exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally, and is represented in many public collections, including the Auckland Art Gallery, the Christchurch Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Australia.

Brokenshire died in Christchurch in 2014. He was a highly respected artist and his work is considered to be an important contribution to New Zealand ceramics. less...