Barry Brickell

Ian Barry Brickell OBE (26 October 1935 – 23 January 2016) was a New Zealand potter, writer, conservationist and founder of Driving Creek Railway.

Born in New Plymouth in 1935, Brickell and his family soon moved to Auckland, initially staying in Meadowbank then settling in Devonport on Auckland's North Shore. While a third-form student at Takapuna Grammar School, he was introduced to potter Len Castle. He enrolled in a Bachelor of Science Degree at Auckland University College in 1954, completing his studies under the Post Primary Teacher's Bursary Scheme. His first and only teaching appointment was in 1961 at Coromandel District High School, which only lasted a few months. He then became a full-time potter and purchased his first property near Coromandel town. In 1974 he purchased the adjacent 60 acre property, which is the current location of his Driving Creek Railway and Potteries.

Brickell was one of the artists featured in Treasures of the Underworld, the New Zealand pavilion exhibition at Seville Expo '92. The exhibition toured to the Netherlands and throughout New Zealand before the works were accessioned for the collection of the National Art Gallery, now held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

He wrote several books and small publications, including A New Zealand Potters' Dictionary (1985) and Rails toward the Sky (2011). In 1996 Christine Leov-Lealand published the biography Barry Brickell: A Head of Steam. In 2013 Auckland University Press published the book His Own Steam: The Work of Barry Brickell to coincide with a major touring retrospective of his pottery work, organised by the Dowse Art Museum and featuring 100 pieces.

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