Samantha Dennis

Samantha Dennis is a jewellery and object-based artist working in Launceston. Sam completed the BCA with first class Honours in 2014 and recently began a PhD through Utas. Fascinated by the ways society has sought to explain and order the phenomena of life, her work navigates themes from science and natural history. Sam actively seeks opportunities to work with museums and natural history collections to enrich or direct her practice. Her exhibitions reference methods of taxonomy and the idea of the ‘cabinet of curiosities’, both for its aesthetic and conceptual richness. Her studio-based practice combines the traditional jewellery craft of goldsmithing with ceramics and glass. This methodology developed through a love for the material and conceptual tropes of jewellery, which remains the dominant agent in her work, and a need to draw reference to natural forms and textures through ambiguous and biomorphic materials.

Sam is a recipient of the Australia Council ‘ArtStart’ grant and has received project funding, grants and residencies through the Regional Arts Fund and Arts Tasmania. She was nominated Treasurer for Sawtooth ARI 2014-18, and invited to join the Arts Tasmania Cultural and Creative Industries Expert Register for peer advisory panels in 2017. She is the winner of the 2016 Artentwine Biennale Small Sculpture Prize, the 2019 Design Tasmania Jewellery Award and the 2019 FIND Gallery Jewellery Bursary. Her production work is currently available through Design Tasmania, MONA, Craft Victoria and Pieces of Eight

Sam also designs and produces functional ceramics to complement and financially back her primary exhibition practice. This production includes private commissions for cafe’s and a small retail range which is available through Design Tasmania (Launceston), Bread & Butter (Launceston), Swims Cafe (Scamander), and Ventura Cafe (Lauderdale).