“Working with clays from my family land gives me a deep sense of connection to my tipuna and to my whenua.  I use a range of techniques to produce and fire the work. 

Themes evolve in parallel, cross connect and develop over years of exploring the limitless combinations of form, scale, texture, surface treatment and firing technique.”

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Baye was born in 1950 and began working with clay in 1974 as a studio potter in Christchurch, NZ. Since 1979 he has worked back in my home area of the Te Tai Rawhiti – the East Coast – primarily in Tokomaru Bay. He co-founded Kaihanga Uku – Maori Clay Artists in 1987 and this group has been responsible for a huge development in Maori ceramics and in fostering links with other indigenous clay artists.

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He has exhibited and run courses and workshops in marae, tertiary institutions and  galleries throughout NZ and internationally, and has been the recipient of a number of awards  including 

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1989 Fulbright Scholarship –  set up exchange with Native American potters

2001 Guest Artist – World Ceramics Expo – Sth Korea

2007 Toi Oahu Fellowship – Te Waka Toi / University of Hawaii

2011 Craft / Object Fellowship – Creative NZ

2012 MMVA – Master of Maori Visual Arts - Massey University

2013 Guest Artist Changchun Sculpture Symposium, China

2020   Nga Tohu Haututanga Auaha Toi – Te Waka Toi Award

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“Baye Riddell is an artist whose work emerges from the soul of the land and the sea.  His work sings of the land, like the earth mother gently beating out her heart rhythms in order to gather in her children. At times a profoundly religious man, he has developed symbols and new shapes to his work that rationalise his oneness with universal concepts.  More recently his work has taken figurative form with new symbols while at the same time not losing the organic and earthy feel which typifies his best work.  “

Darcy Nicholas

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