John Roy is a Tauranga-based ceramic artist who trained at Wanganui Polytechnic, graduating in 1997 with a Bachelor in Fine Arts majoring in ceramics.  

Roy is known for his enigmatic, whimsical characters and his subtle subversions of iconic imagery.  His highly decorative surfaces are often a veil for a more critical commentary on the state of the world today.  Nuclear cooling towers, cowboys, Uncle Sam, businessmen as bandits, politicians with their heads in the clouds, all of which provoke the viewer into paying attention.

Roy has been widely exhibited around New Zealand and his work is held in a number of public collections including the Auckland War Memorial Museum; Tauranga Art Gallery, Waikato Museum and Art Gallery and the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui.

‍