Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Patti Warashina Creates Bone-White China Figurines with a Feminist Edge

For the past 50 years, Pacific Northwest artist Patti Warashina has been creating ceramics that merge a range of themes including car culture, politics, and feminism. While her earlier female "shrines" contained vibrant pops of color, her most recent figurines are made of bone-white china. The characters take on the form of witches dancing around a fire, and nude devils and mortals riding in and alongside cars. Warashina explains in an interview with Seattle PI that she is inspired by Greek and Egyptian columns in the form of female figures, small court figures from the Han Dynasty, and early Japanese Haniwa figures.

For the past 50 years, Pacific Northwest artist Patti Warashina has been creating ceramics that merge a range of themes including car culture, politics, and feminism. While her earlier female “shrines” contained vibrant pops of color, her 1970s figurines are made of bone-white china. The characters take on the form of witches dancing around a fire, and nude devils and mortals riding in and alongside cars. Warashina explains in an interview with Seattle PI that she is inspired by Greek and Egyptian columns in the form of female figures, small court figures from the Han Dynasty, and early Japanese Haniwa figures.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Sara Catapano’s ceramic sculptures appear as absorbing, yet disconcerting biomorphic forms that defy their medium. Though there are otherworldly qualities to these pieces, the artist's observations here on Earth play a direct role in the creation of her work. She says that “these bio-expressive forms are, in some ways, reactions and responses to social and personal experiences.”
Though Takahiro Kondo is a third-generation ceramics artist, his voice is distinctly his own. The Japanese sculptor’s figurative works play with texture and mood, pushing the limits of glazes and form. This style implements the artist's own, original technique: gintekisai, which is an overglaze containing silver, platinum, and gold. This produces the bubbled texture found on the faces of his characters and objects.
The remixed and altered porcelain sculptures of ceramicist Penny Byrne often have a political edge. Byrne's methods recall the methods of Barnaby Barford and the late Click Mort. She uses enamel paints, epoxy resin, putty, and other materials to evolve these found statues.
In a show titled "Posthumorous / Post Mort ’em," La Luz de Jesus looks back at the work of Click Mort, who passed away last year. Mort, known for his “recapitated figures,” crafted humorous, hybrid ceramic sculptures from existing pieces. He was featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 34 and was last featured on our site here.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List