John Parker (potter)

In September 2016 Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery launched John Parker: Cause and Effect, an exhibition and accompanying publication of the same name, celebrating Parker's 50 years of practice. In October 2016 the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa opened John Parker: Handmade Precision.

In 2016, John Parker: Cause and Effect was published by Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery to accompany Parker's 50-year survey at Te Uru. It includes contributions by Jim Barr and Mary Barr, Garth Clark, Andrew Clifford, Grace Cochrane and Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, with new photography by Haruhiko Sameshima including a collaboration with lighting designer Phillip Dexter.

Parker's work shows a long interest in both industrial and modernist ceramics. In 2013 he was a finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards with the work Waitakere Still Life of Ernie and Keith and Ewald, a group of white lustre vases which referenced key potters Ernest Shufflebotham, who designed for Crown Lynn in New Zealand, Keith Murray, who trained Shufflebotham at Wedgwood, and Swedish designer Ewald Dahlskog, whose ceramics shown in London in the 1930s had inspired Murray.

In 2007 Parker was elected a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva. In 2010 he was recognised with a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

In 2002 City Gallery Wellington mounted a 30-year survey of Parker's work titled John Parker: Ceramics.

In 2002 John Parker: Ceramics was published by David Bateman Ltd to accompany Parker's survey exhibition at City Gallery Wellington. The book includes an interview with Parker by Jim Barr and Mary Barr, essays by ceramics historian Janet Mansfield and design historian Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins and a chronology.

In 1999 Parker was made a life member of Auckland Studio Potters and awarded the Waitakere City Millennium Medal for services to the community. In 2004 Parker received Set Designer of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for Big River.

Recalling his time at the RCA in 1990, Parker said:

In 1988 Parker co-authored Profiles:24 New Zealand Potters with fellow potter Cecilia Parkinson, published by David Bateman Ltd. The 24 potters featured were:

In 1970 Parker graduated from Auckland Teachers College with a Teachers College Diploma with Distinction. He attended the Royal College of Art, London, from 1973 to 1975, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts. He returned to New Zealand in 1977.

In 1967 he built a stoneware kiln with Grant Hudson, and in 1969 became a member of the World Crafts Council. From 1977 to 1981 he was director of the Auckland Studio Potters Centre.

Parker began night classes with potter Margaret Milne in Auckland in 1966, when he was 19. In the 1988 book Profiles: 24 New Zealand Potters he recalled:

John Parker (born 1947) is a New Zealand ceramicist and theatre designer.

John Parker was born in Auckland, New Zealand on 7 July 1947. Between 1952 and 1965 he attended Panmure Bridge Primary, Tamaki Intermediate, Howick District High School, Tamaki College and the University of Auckland.

Parker is a set designer for theatre and performing arts. He has designed over 23 productions drama and musical theatre with Auckland Theatre Company including The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Mum’s Choir, Middle Age Spread, The Rocky Horror Show, Noises Off, Waiting For Godot, Rosencrantz and Guildernstein Are Dead, Into The Woods and The Glass Menagerie. Other productions he has done the set design for include opera's Pagliacci and Il Trovatore and New Zealand play Waiora.