Amanda Bromfield
Amanda Bromfield is a ceramic artist working on the land of the Bundjalung Nation.
She is a member of the national Clay Matters Community group of environmental clay workers and has taught ceramics at Murrwillumbah Tafe. She has a Master of Fine Art from the National Art School in Darlinghurst, Australia.
Amanda also has a BA Dip Edu. She has a triple major in Geography and Australian History and Economic History. She taught 2 and 3 unit HSC Geography and International Baccalaureate Geography. Her expertise lies in environmental studies. She holds qualifications in disability work and has spent many years working with autistic and neurodiverse children and adults.
Amanda’s art practice is multidisciplinary. The variety of her methodologies and materialities directly reflects her many interests which are in turn inspired by her own neurodivergence. She performs, makes videos about women's stories and environmental issues and dresses as a koala, marching and protesting her environmental cause. Her marches are dedicated to creating public awareness about climate change, loss of biodiversity and, specifically, the immediacy of saving the koala. Amanda's short movie Army of One made during the disastrous black summer bush fires of 2019/20 documents her daily marches in the Sydney CBD and across rural NSW.
Current Work
Amanda enjoys working with and educating communities about the environment and natural ecosystems, she is currently working with the students at Byron Bay Primary School to to create A Forest of Koalas, a large scale installation of 500 ceramic koalas. Each child and their class teacher has made a clay koala to be exhibited at Lone Goat Gallery opening on 28th March 2026. This project involving the creation of 500 koalas was devised by Amanda to educate and empower children so that they do not feel so vulnerable in this rapidly changing world as a result of climate change. The aim of this project is to give children and communities a voice and a choice about what they can do to promote positive environmental change and safeguard our native species and their habitats.
Past Work
The Nun in the Nightgown opened at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. The exhibition told the story of Brigid Partridge, a young nun who ran away from Mt Erin Convent in Wagga in 1920. Amanda's use of installation enabled her to transport the story of the nun's escape and imprisonment into the contemporary realm by developing connections to the omnipresent misogyny that permeates society.
in 2021 artist Stephen Bird wrote an illustrated article about Amanda's activist work using ceramics as a platform to create environmental awareness. Amanda's koala ceramics Before and After were featured on the cover of The Journal of Australian Ceramics, Vol 60 No1 April 2021.
The Women of Hill End opened at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery on the 15th December 2023 and continued until 5th February 2024 and then travelled to The Hill End Art Gallery for six weeks. This body of work told the stories of the women who have lived, and still do live in the old gold. Amanda began researching the stories of the women of Hill End in 2020. In 2021 she was awarded a month long artist residency at Murrays Cottage to further her research. While in Hill End Amanda immersed herself in the culture of the local community, making friends with many of the townsfolk. Amanda has a great affinity with the women of the town and will be quick to tell you that she left her heart in Hill End.
