Owen Rye (b 1944) from Australia is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. He is known internationally for being at the forefront of the contemporary woodfiring movement. Through his artwork, his writing and his teaching many ceramic artists have been inspired to follow the woodfirer’s path.

Recently for health reasons he has ceased woodfiring and is working with a variety of glazes on stoneware, and photography and sculpture projects.

Completing his doctorate in 1970, the first in Australia in the ceramic arts, he worked with archaeologists at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and the Prehistory Department, ANU. From 1980 he taught ceramics in art schools for 25 years, at the Canberra School of Art and then at Monash University Gippsland, there mainly supervising postgraduate students. About 80 of them graduated.

His teaching has included giving workshops on woodfiring in Australia, the USA and Europe and many public lectures. He has curated woodfire survey exhibitions and he organised the first Australian woodfiring conference in 1986, the precursor to many woodfire conferences and to the Gulgong ceramics events. He retired from art school teaching in 2004.

He has exhibited in Australia and internationally and is represented in public collections in USA, China, Korea, Germany, France, and many Australian collections including the Australian National Gallery, most state and many regional galleries, and in private collections. His recent artist-in-residency stints were in China, Korea, USA and Australia.

His extensive writing has been published in many ceramics magazines around the world, and he is author of five books including The Art of Woodfire, published in 2011. The most recent are a memoir, Beyond Short Street, published by Australian Scholarly; and a book on Palestinian potters; both 2021 publications. He has conducted online and in person workshops on writing.