My name is North Madison Cowper. I'm a New York-based ceramic artist from a small, rural settlement in New Zealand called Waiuku, which means ‘clay water’ in Te Reo Māori. I take the Earth and play with it, transform it, and break it down, choosing what deserves to become permanent.

Making art, for me, is like a trip to a foreign land. I am ignited in discovering the unexpected moments that come out from the kiln that I could never have imagined in my mind. The majority of the time, I am interested in building an everlasting nature, and I lavish in choosing how things interact with one another in my artificial ecosystems. I like being able to choose what stays, what goes, while ultimately, time and time again, being at the mercy of natural forces, fire and Earth, in one ongoing conversation that speaks through form, raw material and colour.

I studied in New Zealand and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Art and Design in 2020. Since then, I've been making and teaching ceramics in various countries such as Spain, Poland, Hawai’i, Taiwan and across the United States.

Clay, for me, fosters respect for our Earth. It is a material that requires close attention. If you disregard it, leave it too long or rush it, it may crack and come apart. You need to spend time caring for the clay, the Earth, to properly use its inner workings.

Recent exhibitions include Soft Landing (Kaiao Space, Honolulu, 2024), Brickell-Brac (Whangārei Art Museum, 2022), and Emerging Artists Exhibition (Sanderson Contemporary, 2021).