Sergei Isupov’s figurative porcelain and stoneware sculptures use the material in differing ways. The artist sometimes uses the surface to create 2D renderings, and elsewhere, the characters are three-dimensional. More recently, some of the works do both on the same piece.
The show Sergei Isupov: Hidden Messages runs at Erie Art Museum in Pennsylvania through April 2. The show offers a career survey for the artist, spanning 20 years. Included in that collection are recent larger-than-life and smaller works. “Exquisitely painted with Isupov’s peculiar and fascinating imagery, the work is created with traditional slab-building techniques, pushing ceramic material to its limits,” the museum says
“Working instinctually and using my observations, I create a new, intimate universe that reveals the relationships, connections and contradictions as I perceive them,” Isupov says, in a statement. “I find clay to be the most versatile material and it is well suited to the expression of my ideas. I consider my sculptures to be a canvas for my paintings. All the plastic, graphic and painting elements of a piece function as complementary parts of the work.”
London based sculptor Rachel Kneebone is well known for her complex porcelain pieces that contain writhing groupings of human figures. Her work has been described as depicting an "erotic state of flux" and "celebrating forms of transgression, beauty and seduction," influenced by ancient Greek and Roman myths and also the modern human experience- you can find aspects of change, death, growth, renewal, and lust dissolved together in her individual pieces.
Chinese artist Li Xiaofeng uses broken slivers of porcelain found at archaeological sites to create original costumes he calls "rearranged landscapes" for their ability to tell a story. To create his wearable works, Xiaofeng shapes and polishes found shards of porcelain from the Song, Ming, Yuan and Qing Dynasties. He drills holes into the pieces and loops them together with a silver wire to create traditional Chinese dresses, jackets and military uniforms.