Pinched by Nevena
Nevena Zakhariev takes influence from her natural environment and draws on colour, texture and pattern to create her ceramic pieces.
Words: Hande Renshaw | Photography: Bee Elton
Ceramic artist Nevena Zakhariev fell in love with clay early in her teen years, when she discovered it during art class in high school. But due to a stroke of bad luck, the school’s kiln broke down and wasn’t repaired, putting her new found passion on hold.
“It wasn’t until I was at the College of Fine Arts that I decided to take up wheel-throwing - I instantly became obsessed with the immediacy of the material; my hands have been muddy with clay for the last five years now,” says Nevena.
Pre-COVID, Nevena, her partner and dog Jackson were living in the Byron Bay Hinterland, a place she feels has greatly influenced her work as a ceramic artist.
“It’s such a beautiful part of Australia — I tried to reflect the intensity of the colours from my environment into the glazes I was making and also capture my surroundings within my work,” she says.
It was here that she also followed her passion to sculpt full time and leapt into starting Pinched by Nevena.
Nevena’s ceramic pieces are perfectly formed and finished in a kaleidoscope of sorbet toned colours, “I have a deep infatuation with colour and texture; I believe glazes really complete a piece and transforms it from an ordinary object into something more magical,” says Nevena.
“I have a deep infatuation with colour and texture.”
Nevena has a few ceramic artists whose work she admires regularly but admits she’s ‘obsessed’ with Brian Rochefort’s work.
“There’s so much precision and skill that goes into layering his glazes that make my head spin, I love his considered play on colour, pattern and texture on such a large scale,” she says.
Being a one person show, Nevena’s days are filled with many tasks, “I recycle all my own clay by hand, grind and sand down my own shelves, try to do some admin, load the kiln, pack orders, make all my own glazes, photograph and edit the images on my website and of course, the fun part of actually making on the wheel,” she shares.
Today, Nevena is back in an industrial hub of Sydney, a world away from her days in the Byron Hinterland, “I think Sydney will definitely influence my work in interesting ways, I’m looking forward to developing and exploring more textural glazes and taking time to play around with sculptural shapes,” she says. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for her next.
“I admire ceramic artists who work with just a raw material and can elevate a piece of the earth to create wonderful, intriguing shapes.”
