Baye Riddell

Name
Baye Riddell
Iwi/Ethnicity
Ngāti Porou/Māori
Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare/Ngāti Porou/Māori
Date of birth
10 Aug 1950
Place of birth
Tokomaru Bay/Gisborne (region)/New Zealand
Gender
Male
Biography
Baye Riddell has worked in pottery since the early 1970s and today is widely regarded as the first Māori artist to work full-time in clay. He established a pottery studio at Tokomaru Bay to make domestic ware and ceramic art, and, along with Manos Nathan, led a movement to revitalise clay work as a Māori artform. He has long tutored in ceramics throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, at tertiary institutions and on marae.

In 1986, Riddell and Nathan founded the national clay workers’ association, Ngā Kaihanga Uku, and in 1989 was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to establish an exchange with Native American artists.