ZoE tjanavaras
Zoë Tjanavaras
Born 1979, Tamworth NSW
Zoë Tjanavaras is an Australian artist based in Newcastle, NSW. She studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and Queensland University of Technology, later expanding her creative practice through Design studies at Newcastle TAFE.
Working across multiple disciplines, Zoë has established herself as both a visual artist and jewellery designer, with her works collected and sold throughout Australia and internationally. While her practice spans painting, jewellery, and design, her current focus lies in ceramics, where she explores form, texture, and surface in innovative ways.
Her works have been exhibited in regional galleries across New South Wales. In 2020 she was awarded the prestigious Muswellbrook Art Prize for Ceramics and a finalist in the Gosford Art Prize in 2025.
Zoë draws from her Greek ancestry and country upbringing to explore the sense of belonging, place and textures in her work.
Her work references memories, family and traditions of migrant ties within her reimagined landscapes.
Alongside her studio practice, Zoë is an educator at The Clayroom, Newcastle, where she teaches wheel-throwing workshops and shares her knowledge with students of all skill levels. Her teaching reflects her belief in the importance of creative exploration, hands-on learning, and building a supportive artistic community.
“My pieces merge the landscapes of my immediate environment with personal experiences, memories, mythology, and the traditions of a migrant family.
I draw from my Greek ancestry and the solitude of a country upbringing to explore belonging, place, and layered emotions in my work.
Ceramic vessels are a recurring theme, rooted in the stories shared with me from a young age about my family origins.
I combine hand-built and wheel-thrown techniques to create sculptural vessels that echo the natural world, balancing control with spontaneity.
Each form is an extension of myself—open to interpretation yet layered with quiet references to heritage, identity, and surroundings.”