Janelle Thompson
Iwiri Aboriginal CorporationBorn in Alice Springs in 1989 Janelle attended Kenmore Park School and Woodville High School in Adelaide.
She is an accomplished ceramic artist and rockstar, working alongside other women of her generation in the ceramics studio. Janelle’s aunts and grandmother also work in the art centre, her grandmother, Carlene Thompson, is a celebrated artist. Janelle’s grandfather was one of the leaders of the APY land rights movement.
In mid-2016 Janelle worked alongside seven other Ernabella women potters to create a collaborative ceramics installation for the Indigenous Ceramics Art Award at the Shepparton Art Museum, Victoria in August 2016. The work was subsequently acquired by the National Museum of Australia and exhibited in Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters.
In 2017 she took a leading role in a commission of over 900 custom made tiles for a luxury hotel. She worked alongside two other Arts Workers to apply underglaze, carve and glaze and fire over 900 individual tiles.
She has exhibited at several galleries in Alice Springs, Sydney, and Adelaide. She continues to produce wiru (beautiful) paintings and ceramics.
She is a dedicated Arts Worker and a rising star of the Ernabella ceramics studio and works out of Iwiri Art studio when in Adelaide.
