Patti Warashina Debuts Bizarre New Ceramics in “Thinking Clearly”

Patti Warashina is a Pacific Northwest based artist known for her imaginative ceramic sculptures that are full of wit and sarcasm. At age 76, she does not stop inventing. Featured here on our blog, her clay figures are usually placed in fantasy environments, where she uses sculpture to explore such themes as the human condition, feminism, car-culture, and political and social topics.

Warashina often refers to her works as dream-like, coming out of left field: “My main thrust is the gesture of people and individuals,” she says, “I’m fascinated by what’s out there in the world- it’s pretty bizarre out there.” Some of her first pieces, inspired by the dolls she played with as a child, express her particularly interest in characterizing women, where they take on the form of witches dancing around a fire, and nude devils and mortals riding in and alongside cars.

For the first time in her long career, Warashina is also incorporating laser and LED light displays into some of her sculptures. While there is a change in some of her materials, her unique sense of humor is still apparent in her newest body of work, “Thinking Clearly”, debuting May 5th at Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art in Seattle. In one piece, titled “Brain Storm”, there is a laser display that is being projected against the interior of the glass hat, and in her “Censored” series, the figures have color LED light displays projecting from their heads.

On the strangeness of her sculptures, Warashina explains: “It’s kind of an aberration of life. And I love those kind of things where there is kind of this surprise element – you know, things aren’t as they seem. And there is always this quirk in human nature. And so I really love that kind of – where you approach something and it looks okay, and then when you look again, there is something wrong. I love that quality.” “Thinking Clearly” will be on view through May 31st, 2016.

Topics

Ceramic, Patti Warashina, sculpture

Mixed Media, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, sculpture

November 29, 2017

Mexico-born artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores uses several approaches to delve into identity and the convergence of cultures. A recent project in particular, titled "The Resistance of the Hybrid Cacti," uses ceramics to look at these concepts and more. The artist says that “through art, I seek to resist the labels put upon me and other people of color by reimagining what an alternative future could look like.”

On View: Courtney Mattison’s “Our Changing Seas III” at the Tang Museum

ceramics, Courtney Mattison, installation, Our Changing Seas III, sculpture, Skidmore College, Tang Museum

May 14, 2014

Courtney Mattison’s ceramics are clearly inspired and motivated by the ocean — that immense, powerful and precious resource whose details are still largely hidden from us. Self-identifying as both an artist and “ocean advocate," Mattison has created massive installations, “Our Changing Seas, I-III,” that cover a bio-diverse selection of coral reef forms. Displayed in a gallery, the pieces appear to grow out of the wall, as if miraculously alive in the dry, alien atmosphere. The ceramic medium allows for remarkable ranges in color, spanning the spectrum of actual living coral to the bone-dry, matte whiteness of its dead state. Both versions are present in Mattison’s pieces, reminding us that these entities are desperately in need of preservation. "Our Changing Seas III" is currently on view at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.

The Miniature Signs of Drew Leshko

Drew Leshko, miniature, sculpture

September 5, 2019

Philadelphia’s Drew Leshko has been lauded for his miniatures depicting urban storefronts and objects, crafted in paper and wood. In the sculptor’s “Signs” series, in particular, we find the architecture of signage given an accurate and intimate portrayal. The artist recently shared some of those recent markers in a show with at Paradigm Gallery + Studio. (In 2016, we visited the artist’s studio, and you can find that story here.)