Sarah Ziessen is a Rotorua based ceramic artist and potter. Her work delves into themes of personal identity, status and belonging. Born in London, Sarah immigrated to Aotearoa, New Zealand in 2002. In 2013 she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a focus on painting, at Whitecliffe College. Sarah won the National Contemporary Art Award in 2018, with her painted sculptural work You and Me. The Weight of History.

After winning the prize, Sarah’s practice pivoted to ceramics — she now runs a pottery studio in Rotorua where she works and teaches art full time.

Sarah’s current work draws on the global traditions of ceramic as well archetypal associations between the vessel and the human body. She creates vessels, plinths and shelves which she assembles and stages as multi component pieces.