About

Mel Jhey lives and works on Gadigal Country, Darlinghurst in NSW, Australia. Her work harnesses the agency of materials to investigate the relationship between the unconscious mind, the body and emotions. Responding to the spaces she works in, she practices primarily with ceramics, experimental glazes and drawing, working quickly with a high level of physical intensity. In this embodied mode, her hands articulate memories and feelings that the brain and mouth cannot. With a sense of the uncanny, her work examines the intersection of the familiar and the surreal, utilising immersive forms and installation to invite physical and psychological curiosity. Her making is a dynamic interplay of control and surrender, both revealing and concealing, connected to the alchemy and energy of the cycles of death and decay, birth and regrowth. The ambiguity in her work represents the inherent dualities of the human condition, a contrast of humour and playfulness against dark, visceral energies. She situates hybrid forms that are part living organism and part inert object in a speculative realm where science fiction, anatomy and ritual collide.

Mel Jhey
Exquisite Intangible, 2025
Stoneware, glaze
143 x 30 x 30 cm
Mel Jhey
Yellow Urn, 2025
Stoneware, iron oxide, engobe, glaze, epoxy, nailpolish, enamel
103 x 30 x 30 cm
Mel Jhey
Reach In, 2025
Stoneware, glaze
138 x 28 x 28 cm
Mel Jhey
Resurface (side view), 2025
Stoneware, engobe, slip, glaze
133.5 x 122 x 78 cm
Mel Jhey
Resurface (front view), 2025
Stoneware, engobe, slip, glaze
133.5 x 122 x 78 cm
Mel Jhey
Resurface (rear view), 2025
Stoneware, engobe, slip, glaze
133.5 x 122 x 78 cm
Mel Jhey
Huddle, 2025
Stoneware, slip, glaze
25 x 15 x 17 cm, 23 x 11 x 17 cm
Mel Jhey
Writhe, 2025
Earthenware, engobe, slip
72 x 17 x 19 cm
Mel Jhey
Three Monster Vases, 2025
Stoneware, glaze
27.5 x 11 x 9.5, 37 x 11 x 7, 42.5 x 14 x 11.5 cm
Mel Jhey
Nook, 2025
stoneware, engobe, glaze
57 x 21 x 14 cm
Mel Jhey
Mysterious Cactus #1, 2025
Stoneware, slip, glaze
40 x 14 x 14 cm
Mel Jhey
Mysterious Cactus #2, 2025
Stoneware, slip, engobe, glaze
48 x 30 x 18 cm
Mel Jhey
Cocoon, 2025
Earthenware, glaze
79.5 x 13 x 13 cm
Mel Jhey
Echo, 2025
Stoneware, glaze, slip, engobe
22 x 13 x 7 cm, 38 x 21 x 13 cm
Mel Jhey
Languid Lure, 2025
Earthenware, slip, glaze, thread
60 x 30 x 19 cm
Mel Jhey
Oracle, 2025
Earthenware, glaze
143 x 30 x 30 cm
Mel Jhey
Camouflage, 2025
Stoneware, glaze
39 x 20 x 15 cm
Mel Jhey
Amulet, 2024
Stoneware, glaze
46 x 22 x 10 cm
Mel Jhey
Mysterious Flower, 2024
Stoneware, glaze, gold leaf
38 x 15 x 18 cm
Mel Jhey
Plom Plom, 2024
Stoneware, glaze
25 x 15 x 15 cm
Mel Jhey
Sploink, 2024
Stoneware, glaze
33 x 12 x 12 cm