Dr Cathy Franzi is an established ceramic artist engaged with ideas of nature and the environment. She uses the ceramic medium and its possibilities for form, surface imagery and installation to explore ways to express cultural and scientific values attributed to plants. Her ideas are underpinned by a Bachelor of Science and research in the botanical sciences, including as a volunteer seed collector with the National Seed Bank, Canberra, and fieldwork on location. Dr Franzi holds a Master of Visual Art and a practice-led PhD in Visual Arts (Ceramics) from the Australian National University.

Franzi has developed a distinctive textural approach to representing Australian flora, adapting aspects of printmaking methods and composition to the ceramic medium. Using her own materials, tools and processes the final work evokes relief, intaglio or block printmaking. Vessels are wheel-thrown using porcelain and then altered, giving movement to the form from which to respond with surface imagery. A plant’s form and character are captured using sgraffito, incising or hand-drawn stencils, and flower colour using materials such as glaze.

In 2024 Franzi was artist-in-residence at Cairns Botanic Gardens in Far North Queensland Australia, where she researched plants and ecologies for a solo exhibition with Sabbia Gallery in Sydney in 2025. Artist residencies form an important role in Franzi’s arts practice, providing access to science professionals and environments in which to research and respond.

Franzi has held over 17 solo exhibitions, including in Germany, received numerous awards and grants, most recently first prize in the Lanyon Art Prize (Australia), is a former President of the Australian Ceramics Association and is currently a sessional lecturer at the ANU School of Art & Design.