Mirek Smíšek

Mirek Smíšek is an internationally celebrated ceramic artist who lived and worked at Te Horo, New Zealand from 1969 to 1997.

Mirek’s life was dedicated to his craft. He began working with clay in Australia in 1948, after having left his devastated homeland, Czechoslovakia, at the end of World War II.

Moving to New Zealand in 1951 Mirek joined Crown Lynn Pottery in Auckland where he experimented with free-flowing Bohemian decorative vases.

Leaving behind factory production he moved to Nelson where by 1956 he became New Zealand's first fulltime independent studio potter.

In the 1960s he worked a year at the Leach Pottery in England and studied in Japan. Smíšek was influenced by the Leach Ango-Japanese ascetic then proceeded to develop his own distinctive forms.

Smíšek was awarded an OBE in recognition of his work in 1990 and in 2008 the Czech Government presented him with the Medal of the Senate for his contributions to Czech culture.