Iole McLachlan

Iole McLachlan’s art explores her observations of the human condition, her lived experience with neuropathic pain, and her reflections on contemporary life and abstraction - all filtered through her distinctive, idiosyncratic lens. Iole’s work frequently explores the underlying emotions and thoughts that are carried but never spoken. She produces sculptural objects which provoke, confuse, and invite a moment of focus, offering a deeper understanding of what it means to be the outsider; to endure, adapt and exist in the space in between.

Her recent works evoke strange, otherworldly landscapes - both emotional and physical - where tension, discomfort and constraint are woven into the fabric of the terrain. She blends abstraction with reality, blurring the line between our inner truths and the events of the world around us.

Iole explains that “rock symbolises endurance and the psychological burdens we carry, physical traps represent emotional ones, glaze acts as skin covering instability beneath. These tensions mirror the tides of daily life, where the organic meets the immoveable and humour masks unrest. I explore what it means to live in a world that never completely makes sense.”

Iole works with a range of stoneware clays, utilising slab and coil hand-building techniques. Through the use of diverse surface treatments and glazes, and often incorporating other mixed media elements, she creates highly tactile works that each have a unique character. This rich materiality speaks to what lies beneath the surface. She shares that “these sculptures are born from disruption, resilience and quiet survival. As a female artist living with chronic pain, I am especially drawn to the subtleties of constraint and how identity is formed and tested under pressure.”

Iole is a Sydney-based artist who originally trained in graphic design and led a successful career as an art director in the publishing industry, before redirecting her focus towards her art practice in recent years. In 2025, she earned an Advanced Diploma in Visual Art (ceramics), building on her lifelong engagement with the arts and crafts. She brings to her work extensive experience in a diverse range of media, including glass, wood, fibre and metal, in addition to ceramics. Iole began her association with Becker Minty in 2025.