John Madden was born in Greymouth on the South Island's West
Coast, in 1953. He studied under renowned landscape painter Toss
Woollaston and ceramicist Barry Brickell at Ilam, Canterbury
University's School of Fine Art, before taking up work as a potter
in Nelson during the 1980's.
Madden is well-known throughout New Zealand as a ceramicist and
abstract painter working largely in mixed media. His proximity to
his Celtic ancestry is visible in the alchemical nature of his work
and his fondness for ritualistic symbols such as chalices and
crosses.
Madden's father was a coal miner on the West Coast of the South
Island and the strength, grit and rawness of the industry have had
their impact on his art. His paintings are heavily
textured with sand and ceramic glazes. Bridging a
triumvirate of ceramics, assemblage and painting, Madden's works
re-present the firing of earth, the cracked and
crazed surface becoming a metaphor for his appreciation of the
slow and grinding process by which the earth itself is formed and
changed. In essence, Madden's work connects directly with the
monumentality of the West Coast earth that inspires him, his work
evoking his immediate surroundings: his home and studio at
Karekare, where he has been based since 1989 and has developed an
intimate and familiar knowledge of the landscape.
Madden has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and his
works are held in many public and private collections including the
James Wallace Trust Collection in Auckland.