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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Masayoshi Hanawa’s intricate ceramic and resin creatures are pulled from the artist’s internal mythology. His creations are filled with mosaic-like detail, each corner of a monster a meticulously crafted and vibrant pattern.
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.
Stephanie H. Shih's ceramic sculptures reflect on her upbringing as a first-generation Asian-American through “the lens of the Asian-American pantry.” The output ranges from hundreds and hundreds of porcelain dumplings to certain imported sauces and oils. With her work, she's also raised funds for communities across the U.S., from displaces indigenous tribes to hurricane victims.
Over the past few decades, Shary Boyle has garnered attention for a multifaceted practice that includes ceramics, painting, installations, drawings, and more. In this post, we take a look at some of her recent sculptures, which toy with vintage and ancient incarnations of rendering humanity through ceramics.
In En Iwamura’s recent show at Ross+Kramer Gallery's East Hampton venue, the artist explores the concept of “Ma,” a philosophical Japanese concept focusing on spatial awareness between entities. His vibrant creations, with their distinct structure and playfulness, give viewers the chance to consider Ma with his creatures.
Geng Xue’s ceramic sculptures, with their traditional coloring and textures, appear as beings evolving and emerging from our shelves. She’s used these creations in multimedia exhibition and even filmmaking, animating them into mythology-inspired narratives. As she creates representations of humanity, Xue seems to be reflecting on our own fragility.
Claire Partington's ceramic figures blend 18-century dress and elegance with contemporary touches and beastial transformations. In her new show at Winston Wächter Fine Art in Washington, new works from the London artist are offered. "The Hunting Party" runs June 8-July 27. Partington was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
David Fullarton balances striking figurative drawing with humorous and conceptual text work, with recent work that leans wholly in either direction. His recent plates, in particular, show his knack for the deceptively simple. Fullarton was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
In sculptor Alessandro Gallo’s new body of work, “Most of the Time,” the artist evolves his ceramic human-animal characters in new situations and reflections. The series is on display in a show currently packing Abmeyer + Wood in Seattle until May 31. Gallo was last featured on HiFructose.com here and appeared in Hi-Fructose Vol. 24.
Ceramicist Lorren Lowrey crafts sculptures that examine the personal tether between growth and pain, with life often sprouting from death. The Portland artist, an oil painter earlier in life, crafts works that rich in classical undertones. Yet, the psychological themes injected create something wholly contemporary.
Lindsey Mendick’s autobiographical ceramic works and installations bring cerebral and surreal touches to the everyday. Upon inspection of these staged scenes in her gallery shows, viewers find both elegance and the unsettling in the details of Mendick’s stirring work.
Moving between works on paper and ceramics, Cathy Lu explores cultural identity and traditional Chinese art in her work. Many of her pieces contain dozens of young female characters, scaling classical vases and metaphoric lifeforms. The artist offers some insight into what she’s traversing in her work:
The ceramic sculptures of Hitomi Murakami tether humanity to nature in a way that appears both elegant and chilling. Her figures grow from vegetation and are consumed by it, exposed and writhing. Works such as “Land of Root,” in contrast, seem more connected to wonder.
Allison Schulnik’s textured paintings move between stirring and ominous scenes and more surreal characters. The denseness of her process gives her paintings a sculptural quality. Study of each work reveals several layers and intrigue.
Mary O'Malley's recent ceramic work appears as a dining set salvaged from wreckage scattered along the seafloor. In her current show at Arch Enemy Arts, "A Seat at the Table," her work is presented as a full-room installation in which a dining service is set. At the artist’s hands, porcelain, glaze, and gold become a convincing display of the organic overtaking high-class artifacts.
William Kidd's ceramic sculptures imagine lifeforms that don't exist in our world. The artist attributes the particularly organic appearance of his pieces to “the choice of a low-fire red earthenware clay which is then finished using oxide stains, underglazes, and my signature crawl glaze.” He says that those materials allow the richness and natural vibrancy of his work to shine.
Wesley Wright’s ceramic sculptures explore our relationship to the natural world, in both its corruption and beauty. In his “Primates" series, in specific, the artist’s talents knack for surprising details in the contours of his subjects shines. The artist, based in Northern California, works primarily in stoneware clay.
Sunkoo Yuh’s clusters of ceramic figures traverse different cultures and topics. His vibrant arrangements of characters range from desk-sized pieces to towering creations. Packed in the pieces are ancient icons, occasional religious figures, and more, sometimes reacting to each other within one set.
Alessandro Gallo's ceramic human-animal characters are often caught in the most candid and casual moments. Gallo’s garnered a reputation for these hybrid creatures, such as the one above, currently featured in the “Ceramics Now” show at The International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza.
In Rebecca Morgan’s ceramics work, her surreal and humorous sensibility is at its most visceral. Her sculptural work often takes the form out of unsettling, yet enchanting heads, carrying exaggerated features and expressions.
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.”
Ceramicist Hitomi Hosono creates vessels born from several, leaf- and flower-like forms. These porcelain pieces carry the rich textures and shapes of their inspiration, even in their interiors. The artist cites both the traditions of Europe and Japan in her approach. Based in the U.K., the artist studied in Japan and Denmark before moving her practice.
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.
Brendan Lee Satish Tang’s ceramic sculptures are mash-ups of cultures, histories, and pop influences. His series, Manga Ormolu, in particular, are clashes between Chinese Ming dynasty vessels and "techno-Pop Art." The artist says "the hybridization of cultures mirrors my identity as an ethnically-mixed Asian Canadian." Tang was featured way back in Hi-Fructose Vol. 6 (and you can now see pieces from that issue in Hi-Fructose Collected 2).
Much of Ahrong Kim’s vibrant ceramic sculptures are reflections of what happens inside our minds. That cacophony comes through in surreal forms, patched together in a strange, yet somehow cohesive sculpture scene. The artist creates both functional objects and progressive forms under this mindset.
Christopher David White says that “human is to nature as skin is to bark – as roots are to veins.” The artist's striking ceramic sculptures attempt to reconcile humanity’s rightful relationship with the natural world, one long abandoned for consumption and convenience. The artist was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here.
Özge Tan’s surreal ceramic sculptures and installations offer both mystery and absorbing detail. Not much has been written about the young, Turkish artist. Yet, her work carries an enormous presence and delicate detailing. Much of Tan’s recent work has the motif of obscured faces, often enveloped by floral growths or abstractions.
Lars Calmar’s figures, often bare and grotesque, carry a humanity that feels at once humorous and sincerely tortured. Even when using animals alongside his baby-like creatures and hulking brutes, the ceramic works feel as wholly human, though primal, in emotion. The artist’s sculptures have been shown in galleries and museums across the world.
The surreal ceramic sculptures of Malaysia native Chao Harn Kae are both strange and humorous, combining creatures and appendages with delicate textures. The Hong Kong-based artist’s dreamlike works range in size and mood, as the figures bounce between evoking playfulness and timidness. His charge has been described as “unraveling humanity while remaining true to human nature.”
Montana-based ceramic sculptor Adrian Arleo crafts surreal figures and hybrid creatures. Toying with scale and texture, Arleo subverts the nature of familiar beings from our world. The result are works that inspire both awe and uncomfortability. The artist says that the themes at play in her pieces are numerous.