Uku Mahi - CLAY, NAUGHTY, CLAY, Parrotdog Gallery, 28.03.19 - 28.06.19

Uku Mahi - Clay Naughty Clay was a solo exhibition by Maia Kreisler, presented at Parrotdog Gallery in Wellington. The show featured a series of pit-fired ceramic works —drawing light to the contours, imperfections, and quiet provocations held in each form.

Kreisler’s practice moves between the instinctive and the intentional, and Clay Naughty Clay was no exception. The show played with dualities: the naughty and the nice, the ancient and the experimental, the sacred and the irreverent. Her use of pit firing—a method that leaves markings both unpredictable and elemental—paired with metallic finishes, created a tension between raw earthiness and ethereal shimmer.

The works sat somewhere between artefact and attitude. They gestured toward indigenous shapes, inner worlds, and the imagination as both a tool and a terrain. For Kreisler, clay becomes a language through which to explore presence, power, and play—her place in the world rendered not through grand gestures, but through fire, earth, and touch.

Attended by a curious and thoughtful crowd, Clay Naughty Clay offered more than just an exhibition—it invited a kind of witnessing. A space where form became feeling, and mischief met meaning.