Hey, I’m Imke

Hi, I’m Imke Breayley, an artist based in SE Melbourne. I make a mixture of ceramic and painted works across multiple mediums. I have received a BFA from RMIT (2024) and have exhibited in Melbourne and internationally. I make works discussing feminism, connection, anxiety, capitalism, and escapism.

I create because I want to inject more art into people’s lives. More real, tangible, considered art. We are living in a time where creativity is deemed inefficient and unproductive, pushing art to the side creating a loss of connection with each other as human beings. I aim for my work to be both accessible and impactful in a variety of spaces, and I hope that you will be a part of that journey with me.

Check out my work below!

Read my Artist CV
Imke portrait
White ceramic vase with a blue decorative line, pink hibiscus flower behind it, set against a transparent background.
Colorful ceramic shell-shaped dish with a painted conch shell design and a smaller blue shell in the background.

2024

‘Found Treasures’

Collection of 11 ceramic pieces, fired to stoneware. Porcelain hand built plates and white clay bowl.

This fantastical collection of functional ware is inspired by the idea of an underwater city who’s plates and bowls have washed up on the beach and you have discovered an artefact of a hidden civilisation. My obsession with the sea and the ocean comes with living by it my whole life, seeing it in the peaks of summer and the depths of rainy winter. There is such a romance to the ocean and how she works alongside teh horizon and the land. I am fascinated and inspired by water and fairytales, bringing that whimsy into ev eryday spaces with this collection was just the start of my love for high concept functional work.

A fair portion of my ethos resonated with that of Art Nouveau, bringing that whimsy and imagination into more spaces, providing connection through imagination and touch.

A person holding a decorative ceramic plate with blue and white design, featuring a hand-painted shell, against a coastal background with cliffs and ocean during sunset.
A person's hand placing a small decorative plate with colorful seashell illustrations into the shallow water on a sandy beach.
Person holding a decorative ceramic plate with a blue and white seashell design in front of a beach scene with rocks, ocean waves, a sandy shore, and a horse in the distance during sunset.
Person's hand holding a decorated ceramic plate with a colorful seashell drawing, as it interacts with the shoreline and shallow waves on the beach.
An outdoor scene showing a brightly painted seashell leaning against sandy ground, surrounded by rocks and smaller seashells.
A hand holding a decorative plate with a blue and white shell design in front of a beach and ocean scene during sunset.
A sandy dune with a decorated ceramic bowl featuring marine themes.
Person holding a decorative plate with a blue and white design, featuring a shell motif, against a beach background with rocks, ocean, and sky.
Person's hand holding a ceramic shell-shaped dish with an image of a real seashell, near the shoreline with foamy waves.

2025

‘19˚ and Sunny’

Glazed ceramic vessel with rhinestone detailing, 15x7.5cm

This piece is about those days where the weather is crisp and the sun is a welcome heat on your skin. Those rare days that tell you spring is on its way after all.

Experimenting with rhinestones on ceramic work is a continued line of exploration within my work across multiple forms. These other forms can be found in my shopfront.

2024 - Ongoing

‘Little Jesters’ plate series

Itty Bitty, Korra, Kitty (process)

20x20 cm, underglazed midfire plates with gloss glaze.

Little Jesters is an ongoing series of pet portraits on plates that was started in 2024. These joyful, silly babies painted with underglaze on plates is all about celebrating the joy that the animals we care for bring to us. They began as part of an exhibition with i.Squared, but every new commission continues this growing collection of appreciated pets and silliness.

I am enamored by the idea of these plates existing further into the future, confusing and elating historians. Ceramic work is one of the most enduring forms of art, despite it being so fragile. I often create with this idea in mind, that this piece will be around long after I or anyone I know is gone. It brings a strange comfort. I hope the future enjoys my art.

Decorative plate featuring a painted portrait of a cat wearing a blue and red striped party hat with a blue pom-pom on top, and a blue ruffled collar with red outlines.
Decorative plate with a painted cat wearing a Christmas hat and a red wavy collar.
Partially finished painted ceramic plate with a realistic depiction of a black and white cat's face and yellow eyes, surrounded by faint sketches of floral and leaf patterns.

2023

‘What a pretty young girl!’ & ‘Smile!!’

What a pretty young girl! - DIMENSIONS

Pink and clear glazed hand built ceramic vessel

Smile! - DIMENSIONS

Red gloss and underglaze portraits on hand built ceramic vessel

Created as my capstone project finalising my time at RMIT.

This small vessel series depicts feelings of anger and conflict about being a woman and wanting to embrace femininity but knowing how tightly that is linked to a capitalist and misogynistic cycle made to profit from insecurity and perpetuate limitations.

Using slabs of paper clay, embossed with satin bows of varying size they are torn into pieces and rebuilt into vessels that are then painted and glazed with a monochromatic red and pink colour scheme. The inside of these vessels is covered in scratchy texture like an animal has scratched the inside of a cage.

Ceramic vases with artistic designs, one featuring multiple drawn faces and the other with a textured pink and white pattern.
Close-up of pink and white vase with leaf-like patterns.
Ceramic vase with a pink and white marbled pattern and textured, crumpled surface.
Close-up of a red vase with textured, layered surface, viewed from above on a white background.
Ceramic vase decorated with endearing sketched portraits of women in black and red, on a white background.
Pink Handmade Ceramic Vase with Cream-colored Inner Surface.

2022

‘gLove’

gLove - DIMENSIONS

Underglaze painted ceramic sculpture with gloss glaze

This work was created as Roe v Wade was overturned in America and discusses the idea that traditional commitment comes with a cage of domesticity akin to that of a hyper-misogynistic 50’s era perfect housewife. To have the ring, to have the commitment, you must also put on the glove. 

In a time of exaggerated extremes this piece is an expression of anxiety surrounding cultural shifts towards women. 

A blue ceramic hand sculpture with a large yellow ring with a red gemstone on top.
A blue ceramic hand sculpture with a large yellow ring with a red gemstone on top.