Real flowers blend with vividly colored glazes on Sam Falls’ recent ceramic sculptures at 303 Gallery to offer an intense experience of nature, real and represented. Working with flowers and plants from his own garden, Falls rolls them into ceramic slabs which he fires to burn off the organic matter. Referring to the remaining silhouette of the plants as ‘fossilization,’ the artist aims to preserve elements of a changing landscape as a record for the future. (On view through May 30th).
On a low pedestal at the center of Shrine Gallery’s back exhibition space, a selection of Sally Saul’s quirky ceramic sculptures seems designed to underwhelm but charms none-the-less. Snaggle-toothed dogs frisk around, three white-throated sparrows with delicate bodies and chunky feet gather around a dish of food, and a couple of chipmunks chatter together in sculptures that delightfully picture animals in community with each other. Meanwhile, Saul’s perturbed-looking self-portrait head semi-surrounded by several tiny flying fish humorously suggests that this alter ego has slipped into another mental state while nearby, a whimsical hatted figure holding a dish of something resembling fruit sits in wholesome enjoyment of the natural world. (On view in Tribeca through May 9th).
Three towering arrangements of curving stacked forms in Nicole Cherubini’s first solo show at Chelsea’s Friedman Benda Gallery represent Greek mythology’s Three Graces in a decidedly updated style. Cherubini’s versions partially preserve the white expanses of flesh on ancient marble trios while adding expressionist drips and splashes of color and terracotta material as if to partially cloth the normally nude characters. In past work, Cherubini has treated sculpture and support as equally important; here for Grace number three, a long bench-like form extends away from the figure like the train of a dress or elements of a landscape. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 21st).
Below a sign made of hessian and felt reading ‘Never Be Cool,’ Jonathan Baldock’s ceramic sculpture ‘She’s Sassy’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery obeys the message with her fiery-red color and engaged stance. Other ceramic sculptures continue the British artist’s series of colorful mask-like faces while multi-media works reference the Bremen Town musicians as human, animal hybrids. Baldock’s bodies-as-vessels continue to explore the breadth of human identity, foibles and fun included. (On view in Tribeca through Oct 11th).
With titles like ‘Clutch,’ ‘Trespass,’ and ‘Cradling,’ Nathalie Khayat’s new ceramic sculptures at Marianne Boesky Gallery suggest emotionally evocative human actions in clay form. Yet each centers on a merger of architectural solidity (aided by stoneware construction) and plant-like organic growth, upward and outward. Weighty and deliberate yet offering the notion of development within those restraints, Khayat situates her practice in the experience of living in the crossroads city of Beirut, where she has described a tenuous and fluid quality to life. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th. Note summer hours.)
Titled ‘Neo Jomon,’ Japanese ceramic artist En Iwamura’s sculpture at Ross and Kramer Gallery updates ancient Japanese pottery with a new consideration of the age-old ‘cord’ pattern. Pulling a tool over clay that has started to harden, Iwamura achieves a textured effect that can look deceptively like fabric, even at close range. Inspired by the mask collections in Osaka’s National Museum of Ethnology, which he visited while growing up, Iwamura infuses his forms with both mystery and humor. (On view in Chelsea through March 22nd).
At over five feet tall, Simphiwe Mbunyuza’s monumental ceramics at Chelsea’s David Kordansky Gallery entice with their strong presence, striking color and unusual protrusions. Bumps inspired by traditional Xhosa ritual vessels, house shapes that recall cylindrical South African dwellings and horns pointing to the importance of cattle in Xhosa life signal Mbunyuza’s engagement with aspects of his culture and upbringing including his spiritual identity. The latter manifests in the sizes of the works, the larger pieces connecting to ancestors while smaller pieces are associated with the artist and his living relatives. Arranged specifically in the gallery and characterized by colors representing South African landscapes, Mbunyuza’s ceramics offer access to material and immaterial worlds. (On view through Feb 22nd).
Complex and colorful, Jiha Moon’s ceramic vessels at Derek Eller Gallery entice with their cheeky updates to historic forms and their contemporary subject matter. Dumplings and succulent fruits allude to pleasure while forming the two eyes on this pot dominated by a fake grin. Moon explains that this work is autobiographical, the dark clouds representing the impact on her life of the weather (specifically hurricanes) in Tallahassee, where she lives. The pagoda, boat and two birds refer to Blue Willow Pattern, an English take on blue and white Chinese porcelain with an accompanying love story that alternates between tragedy and happy ending. (On view in Tribeca through Dec 21st).
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess’s lively and charming ceramic sculptures, now on view at Kaufmann Repetto in Tribeca, feature popular cartoon characters rendered in an expressive style. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and the Chilean character Condorito, the artist says, “…are the masters of everything for me…they know all the answers for everything. They make fun of everything. Nothing is so serious.” Additional tiles, plates, vessels and sculpture feature Aztec motifs and other indigenous American imagery speak to Suarez Frimkess’ diverse interests and influences over her 95 years of creativity. (On view through Oct 19th).
Inspired by visitations from a spiritual entity, late self-taught British artist Madge Gill produced drawings of anonymous female figures surrounded by patterns; selections of her work from the ‘40s and ‘50s ground Nicelle Beauchene Gallery’s vibrant 3-person show in Tribeca. Bright, patterned paintings by Chelsea Culprit and lushly glazed ceramics by Jennie Jieun Lee add color and, in the case of Lee’s sculpted heads, introduce decidedly otherworldly figures with appealingly ambiguous identities. (On view through June 29th).
Modeled after El Greco’s ‘The Penitent Mary Magdalene,’ Mary Carlson’s small-scale sculpture of one of Christ’s most devoted followers is both delicate in her tiny features and monumental in her seated, robed body. Now on view at Kerry Schuss Gallery, displayed on wall-mounted wooden shelves amid scrolling copper piping, Carlson’s new sculptures evoke the figures and decorative designs on the pages of medieval manuscripts. Characterized by world-weariness vs El Greco’s doe-eyed young woman, Carlson’s saint is pictured in the process of receiving a revelation and puts a hand to her bare chest. Less erotic than El Greco’s version, Carlson’s Mary is a substantial woman engaged with the life of the mind and spirit. (On view in Tribeca through April 27th).
To a soundtrack featuring readings from Charles Baudelaire’s ‘Flowers of Evil,’ Apollinaria Broche’s ceramic and bronze flowers strike gangly poses in her solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, exuding both wonky charm and maleficence. Like an insect to nectar, viewers are drawn into the center of colorful ceramic flowers that feature tiny bronze sculptures – a winged horse, a contented-looking cat – of cavorting magical creatures. More ominous figures – snakes, flies – appear as well, suggesting that the flowers inhabit a garden less welcoming than it first appears. In this detail image of ‘I hid my tracks Spit out all my hair,’ skulls and daggers mingle with the seeds of this lush blossoming plant, summoning a specter of death and violence where it might least be expected. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 24th.)
Inspired by pre-Columbian ceramics in his native country of Argentina, Gabriel Chaile’s High Line sculpture ‘The Wind Blows Where it Wishes’ turns a vessel-shape into a living form with a delicate face positioned both front and back on the neck. Made from steel and adobe, the sculpture recalls ancient handcrafting processes while being protected and animated by an undulating ribbon of dark metal which ends at the front in two small hands holding a tube-like instrument. Towering yet humble, an object yet miraculously living, Chaile’s enchanting sculpture uniquely engages the park’s visitors. (On view on the High Line over 24th Street through April ’24).
University of Washington art professor emerita Patti Warashina created this comical collision in 1971 as a commentary on the way in which male ceramic students were challenged to build kilns while the female students were encouraged to practice decorative techniques. Now a standout in the Museum of Art and Design’s excellent ‘Funk You, Too,’ exhibition, Warashina’s ‘car kiln’ (in which a ‘car’ or ‘deck’ can be directed into a kiln) pioneers a new variety of kiln, one capable of being magically reshaped by the artwork put into it. As her red car drives into the kiln (complete with an interior full of flames), the kiln itself morphs into Warashina’s vision. (On view through Aug 27th).
Known for making paintings by leaving canvases outside to weather under careful arrangements of plants and scattered, colorful pigments, Sam Falls’ ceramics at 303 Gallery offer a more direct appreciation of the flora he depicts. While the canvas works feature silhouettes of plants (created as the natural material blocks the pigments from reaching the canvas), the ceramics include plant life which has been rolled into the clay and burnt out in the kiln. Falls then applies glazes which flow and fade to suggest memories of the original natural material. At the center of this piece is a photo taken on instant film (a technology that, like its subject, enjoyed a limited lifespan) of flowers in Central Park, which he returned to and harvested once dead to include in the ceramic form. (On view in Chelsea through July 28th).
Because they’re hollow, ceramic artist Rose B. Simpson’s sculptures “hold space,” she explained in a recent interview with Vogue. She went on to say, “I often think about the space inside as holding intention; I want them to go out and do work in the world and be vessels for that intention I’m putting out there.” Three large vessel-like sculptures in Simpson’s current exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery are a powerful presence, marked by signs that relate to specific meaningful ideas for the artist, representative of her internal thought processes and development. Titled ‘The Road Less Traveled,’ Simpson’s show introduces this already very successful artist to New York audiences as a maker who follows her own way. (On view in Chelsea through April 8th).
Amusingly excessive, Lindsay Lou Howard’s new ceramics at Launch F18 speak to overconsumption with a sense of humor and a lot of imagination. Here, ‘Plant Based’ offers nutrition to the worms still wriggling in the dirt (?) or fake meat (?) of this giant, 2-foot-tall sandwich. Other pieces in the show, including a lamp made of thick spaghetti in red sauce (interspersed with chocolate, veggies and a can of Sprite) and a sandwich holding a giant ‘Faberge’ egg between pieces of white bread, ask if we really ‘want it all.’ (On view in Tribeca through Oct 15th).
Young Brooklyn-based sculptor Didi Rojas makes portraits in the form of ceramic shoes, titling her current show at Launch F18 ‘Felt Cute, Might Delete Later’ after the selfie meme. This sneaker is titled ‘I really don’t think I’m like other girls but whatever, you’ll believe what you want to believe,’ suggesting a speaker’s bid for independence and doubt that (s)he’ll be taken seriously. In past work – yellow platform crocs or bright red high-heeled boots – Rojas has seduced us with standout fashions; here, more muted colors and everyday styles speak to identities we put on every day. (On view in Tribeca through June 11th).
Inspired by their residency at the natural-history treasure-trove, The Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, artist duo Future Retrieval have filled Denny Dimin Gallery in Tribeca with sculpture, cut paper and rugs inspired by the natural world. Here, an image of mushrooms carefully crafted from cut-paper towers over porcelain specimens, together creating a mini-garden celebrating fungal diversity. Called a ‘mycological trophy case’ by the artists, the piece pays homage to mycologist Curtis Gates Lloyd’s extensive research and study. (On view through June 4th).
Hawaii-born master ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu’s sculptural forms from the 90s, on view at James Cohan Gallery, synthesize Abstract Expressionism and Japanese art tradition with understated beauty. Working in a palette of colors inspired by nature in her home state, Takaezu ventured beyond earthly inspiration to create ‘moon pots’ like this one from two half-spheres. (On view in Tribeca through May 7th).
Roses float through the air in Alex Anderson’s wall-mounted earthenware sculpture at Deli Gallery, evoking a romantic daydream. But whimsy turns to horror as it becomes apparent that the flowers are being severed from their stems by flying needle-like forms, resulting in tiny spurts of blood that suggest human, not plant anatomy. Presented on a mirror-like form (other shapes resemble serving platters and emoji hearts), in which we should expect to see our reflection, the piece prompts self-examination. Set against blue skies and wispy clouds, the piece warns of vulnerability in the virtual realm. (On view in Tribeca through May 7th).
Artist and activist Celia Vasquez Yui’s ceramic sculptures of animals in the Peruvian Amazon are arranged at Salon94 in a mini amphitheater, forming a gathering she calls the ‘Council of the Mother Spirits of the Animals.’ Speakers in the gallery play invocations sung by healers whose intention is to heal the assembled deer, monkeys, jaguars and other animals, encouraging them to hold their own against endangerment. Here, two playful deer are ornamented with kene, elaborate abstract designs that speak to harmony in nature. (On view on the Upper East Side through March 5th).
Titled ‘Roda das encantadas,’ or ‘Enchanted Wheel,’ Maria Nepomuceno’s new solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co delights the eye with the Brazilian artist’s signature spiraling forms crafted from straw, beads and resin. Intended to represent a movement into our own inner depths as well as an expansion into the infinite, this assemblage of circular forms also makes more concrete allusions to the body in breast-like ceramic elements and a recurring umbilical cord reference. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 12th. Masks and proof of vaccination are required.)
Brie Ruais’s signature approach to art involves manipulating a 130 lb pile (equivalent to the artist’s weight) of clay into flat rings of ceramic sculpture textured with finger and footprints. Here, she varies her usual circular form with this knot-shaped piece in her current show at Albertz Benda Gallery. The artist has called her work ‘Earth Art that takes place in the studio;’ in this sculpture, the relationship between the body and landscape speaks to interconnectedness. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 22nd.)
If images of factories, billowing smokestacks and oil-slicked water sound alien to traditional ceramic decoration, the title of Ken Price’s mid-90s series, ‘Plutoware,’ at Matthew Marks Gallery plays along. Intended to be a pun on the word pollution, the iconic sculptor’s scenes of environmental damage set up a fundamental contrast between intimately scaled and beautifully colored plates, bowls and vessels and depictions of giant manufacturing and co-generation plants. Though Price’s work would seem to project despair, his wife, Happy Price explains an alternative point of view, saying, ‘When you look at the Pluto Ware some people only see pollution, darkness, and grim and then other people—like myself—see a kind of strange dark beauty.’ (On view through Dec 18th in Chelsea).
From pattern drawings based on wicker chairs to meticulous renderings of blossoming plants, Ruth Asawa’s artistic practice focused on remarkable elements of everyday life in addition to the hanging wire sculptures for which she is best known. David Zwirner Gallery’s current exhibition of the late artist’s drawings and sculpture, which includes these ceramic casts of friends and visitors to her home, aims to reveal her integration of art and life inspired by her avant-garde background, busy household and active community. (On view through Dec 18th on 20th Street in Chelsea).
Dogwood flowers are known for their ‘delicate yet tough appearance’ the Brooklyn Museum explains; Sugiura Yasuyoshi’s sculptural version of a dogwood bloom adds another contrast by presenting transient beauty in solid stoneware. Known for his ceramic sculptures of flowers, Yasuyoshi’s blooms may seem an unusual choice for ‘The Slipstream,’ the museum’s current show of work from the permanent collection that reflects on the turbulence of 2020. But the flower is often associated with rebirth, making it a symbol of hope. (On view through March 20, ’22. Masks and vaccination proof required.)
The unlikely combination of a snake and carrots and the media of painting and ceramics in Stephanie Temma Hier’s sculpture/painting at Kasmin Gallery both attracts and puzzles. Hier’s diverse combinations of imagery have included ceramic greyhounds with painted blueberries and sculptural lips enclosing a 2-D image of tulips; generally her juxtapositions prompt consideration of how the natural world has been mediated by human consumption. Titled ‘At the Root of the Curve,’ this painting links root vegetables to sinuous forms via algebra terminology. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th).
Inspired by unschooled art and experimentation, artist and School of the Art Institute of Chicago ceramics professor William J. O’Brien presents a cluster of 42 ceramic spheres celebrating nonconformity and variety in Marianne Boesky Gallery’s summer group show. Titled ‘Earth, Water, Fire, Wind & Space, Pt. 1,’ the installation is literally grounded yet aims to take the mind beyond the everyday. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 6th).
Inspired by Florentine salt cellars depicting religious imagery, Ann Agee’s contemporary Madonna and child sculptures rethink traditional devotional objects. After an online taster exhibition featuring mother and child sculpture in summer ‘20, Agee rewards an in-person visit to PPOW Gallery with dozens of sculptures in wonderfully bold patterns and styles that range from detailed to abstract. Occupying one huge pedestal at the center of the gallery, Agee’s homage to mothers and – in this case female – children is a celebration of variety and invention. (On view in Tribeca through July 23rd.)
Tiny at just 8 x 8 inches, this underpainted and glazed ceramic sculpture has a powerful presence in Natalie Frank’s solo exhibition at Salon94’s Lower East Side location. ‘Woman, Bride,’ is one of many female figures depicted in paper pulp paintings or ceramic sculpture who appears to know her own mind and is prepared to use it. Whether Frank is partnering with Ballet Austin on a performance, illustrating books with her expressive paintings, or crafting sculpture, the dynamism and daring of her imagined characters stands out. (On view on the Lower East Side through May 22nd.)
Titled ‘Joy Revolution,’ Salon94’s exhibition of late French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s painting, sculpture and work on paper celebrates color, pleasure and play. Just inside Salon94’s stunning new 89th Street location, a 17,500 square foot former mansion built by philanthropist Archer Huntington, two lions originally intended as garden decoration greet visitors. Intended to entice kids to climb them, they serve here as guardians and greeters. (On view through April 24th).
Created during quarantine but using faces and feet crafted 20 years ago, Sharif Bey’s small but forceful Boilermaker sculptures layer references to the artist’s personal history as a maker and art history. Formed from a vessel fired with nails and shards to resemble a nkisi nkondi power figure, ‘Boilermaker: Fidel’ references a working-class beer cocktail and Bey’s father’s job as a Pittsburgh boilermaker. The artist identifies the central focus of his work as an investigation of how power manifests; his hybrid sculptures encourage complex understandings of power and influence. (On view at Albertz Benda Gallery in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing required).
Sally Saul’s new ceramics at Rachel Uffner Gallery engage today’s difficult times with humor by bringing out the absurdity in some of our anxieties. Here, waves defy nature to encircle one swimmer and finger-like peaks rise up in to threaten unwanted contact. On the other hand, the small size and delicate nature of the waves make them look almost playful. (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 30th. Masks and social distancing are required).
Though Otto Piene’s involvement with Group Zero, a post-war avant-garde group dedicated to exploring light and motion in art, ended when the group dissolved in the ‘60s, his experimentation with light continued into late career. This stunning ceramic sculpture resembling a rainbow at Sperone Westwater is characteristic of his ‘heavy images,’ made by pushing metallic glazes through a screen onto clay before firing. (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 16th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
While most artists would choose between a ceramic sculpture or a painting for a given artwork, young Brooklyn-based Canadian artist Stephanie Temma Hier combines both in wall-mounted sculptures that frame representational paintings of fruit, vegetables, and flowers. Surrounded by natural imagery, the artworks set up conversations between painting and crafted subjects that literally expand our thinking beyond the frame. Here, fresh, clean and ready to cook greens meet both wild (hallucinogenic?) and chopped mushrooms offering a variety of pathways to consumption. (On view at Arsenal Contemporary Art on the Lower East Side through Dec 20th. Masks and social distancing required).
Bathrooms and all their bodily associations inspired this unforgettable life-sized porcelain and stoneware sculpture by Ann Agee. Another less private domestic object – folk art salt cellars from Florence, Italy – prompted the ceramic sculpture in the artist’s current online exhibition at ppowgallery.com. Merging the functional with the devotional, each artwork features a Madonna and child-like pairing but with a twist – the youngsters are girls. (Online at PPOW Gallery through June 27th).
Though Minnie Mouse and other comic icons are a recurring subject for Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, they’re new every time she makes them. This is apparent in this sculpture of Minnie holding a Prada bag and cocking her head thoughtfully to the side from Suarez Frimkess’ 2017 show at Kaufmann Repetto. The gallery’s current on-line show of Suarez Frimkess’ features insights from the artist, more Minnies and diverse work that draws on art historical sources from Egyptian sculpture to pre-Columbian art.
Late California-based sculptor Viola Frey’s huge standing man is a highpoint of the Whitney’s current exhibition rethinking the presence of craft in fine art; three tondos by the iconic artist at Nancy Hoffman Gallery are a more human-scaled exploration of humanity. This strikingly colorful, theatrical character whose face resembles a tragedy mask, holds a circular form that appears to be a plate or similar artwork, suggesting a tongue-in-cheek portrait of an artist. (On view in ‘The Circle’ through Jan 30th).
Peter Voulkos’ influence is a constant presence in New York’s galleries if his actual rule-destroying ceramic sculptures are infrequently seen; Burning In Water’s current show of work from Voulkos’ ‘Stacks’ series manifests the artist’s deliberately imperfect forms. Patched, split and tilting to the side, ‘Big Ed’ exemplifies the energy and expression Voulkos brought to his art. Translation from the original ceramic to bronze adds durability to the dynamic. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 21st).
Mary Heilmann’s red and black ceramic sculpture ‘Curl’ seems to defy its title with its angular panels, yet each segment dynamically spins around a central core like a step on a spiral staircase seen from above. Each tile evokes a riser with three treads or a chunky version of the Egyptian deity Isis’ throne in Constructivist colors that make a bold statement. (On view at Gladstone Gallery’s 24th Street Chelsea location through July 26th).
North Carolina potter Jim McDowell channels the ceramic styles of enslaved craftsmen from the mid-19th century in face jugs with a message. ‘War Ends Nothing’ says the text written into the side of ‘War ‘n’ Peace’ on the left, while ‘Trayvon’ at center carries words that expresses anger at and healing after the death of Trayvon Martin. (On view at Cavin Morris Gallery in Chelsea through April 20th).
Kathy Ruttenberg’s signature human/animal hybrids debuted on New York City streets this winter as large-scale sculptures in the Broadway malls project, a public art project located between 64th and 157th Streets on Broadway. This macquette for a sculpture on 157th Street, currently on view at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, brings her storytelling back to an intimate scale as a human-bodied stag pursues a quixotic romance with a confined mermaid. (On view on 57th Street at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art through March 8th).
British ceramic artist Richard Slee’s ongoing installation of ceramic hammers and tools with wooden handles is a thought-provoking jumble of tongue-in-cheek contradictions, starting with the impossibility of using any of these tools for actual labor. Like Pete Seeger’s famous intention to ‘hammer out love,’ the concept is more convincing than the reality, as suggested by this abandoned pile. (On view at Hales Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 23rd).
Late sculptor Ken Price evoked bodies and nature in a humorous, accessible and endlessly colorful way for decades until his death in 2012. In a show of work from the ‘90s to 2010 at Matthew Marks Gallery, Price’s evocative forms continue to elicit puzzlement and delight in equal measure. (On view on 24th Street in Chelsea through Dec 22nd).
Simone Leigh continues to merge bodies and architecture in provocative ways in her debut at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea. Highlights include the raffia-skirted figure on the left, a maternal character elevated by her tall, tent-like garment and commanding respect with her hands-on-hips pose. Natural materials contrast the delicate porcelain flowers clustered in a wreath around her face, suggesting a woman equally at ease with the ready-made and refined. (On view through Oct 20th).
Ceramics get comic and weird in The Hole NYC’s sprawling exhibition of art made from clay. Theo A. Rosenblum’s ‘King Carrot’ grins enthusiastically in the main gallery, setting the tone for a show that includes Alice Mackler’s amorphous female figures, a delinquent Bart Simpson portrait by FriendsWithYou and much, much more. (On view on the Lower East Side through May 6th).
Bosco Sodi’s hand-formed ceramic cubes at Paul Kasmin Gallery are new but appear weathered, evoking mankind’s ancient and ongoing relationship with clay. Behind, a mixed media painting continues Sodi’s signature practice of mixing pigment, sawdust, glue and other materials into an explosive, vividly colored abstraction. (On view at Paul Kasmin Gallery through Jan 6th).
Like models strutting down a catwalk, a row of abstracted ceramic figures by nonagenarian LA artist John Mason exude confidence and style. Recalling Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, Brancusi’s sculpture and Lygia Clark’s bichos they combine Cubist form, Futurist dynamism with a suggestion of moveability often alien to ceramics. (On view at Albertz Benda Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 13th).
Young LA-based sculptor Brian Rochefort takes inspiration from nature, modeling his ceramic vessels after a giant underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize and a series of water-flooded caves in tropical climes among other natural wonders. Building up organic shapes from mud and clay, Rochefort covers their surfaces with ceramic, glass and glaze to create a wonder-inspiring experience of his own. (On view at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).
From her home in a small French town, British octogenarian artist Ursula Morley Price continues to invent unique ceramic forms that evoke the beauty and order of the natural world. This white twist form, on view at McKenzie Fine Art on the Lower East Side, suggests delicate petals, a flexible spinal column, coral, machinery and more. (On view through Dec 22nd).
Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ work elicits appreciation of the uncharming extraordinary in life. ‘Cushion,’ from the artist’s latest solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, is no exception. Two misshapen figures intertwine on a couch cushion, enjoying a moment of tenderness and connection. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 22nd).
A crumpled red duvet at the entrance to Jane Lombard Gallery is at once cozy and alien – a symbol of the comforts of home, but a symbol that belongs to someone else. Constructed in fired clay by Ashley Lyon, sculptures including the bed covering, a piece of memory foam, pillows and this quilt offer a conceptual appreciation of the soft furnishings that make a house a home. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).
Popeye, Chinese landscape painting and pre-Columbian art are among the many influences on Magdalena Suarez Frimkess’s small-scale but boldly conceived ceramics. Vessels like this untitled head reimagine use-value while introducing enticingly idiosyncratic characters. (On view at Kaufman Repetto in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
These shoes may not be the most ambition artworks in Sally Saul’s debut show at Rachel Uffner Gallery, but their unassuming quality – a quotidian appreciation for the quiet pleasures in life, such as the perfect shoes for the occasion – is the perfect introduction to a show of what critic John Yau calls ‘funny, sweet and tender’ artworks. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).
Gardens are Joan Bankemper’s inspiration, whether she’s crafting a vase-form covered in flowers and bees or helping plan community gardens. At Chelsea’s Nancy Hoffman Gallery, Bankemper combines handmade and found flowers, vessels and spiritual beings in this riotous sculpted garden. (On view through Sept 1st).
A figure reclines in front of a baguette, friends walk in the woods and here, a young woman chats on the phone while resting on a huge container of an oversized art supply in ceramic sculpture and plates by Berlin-based artist Isabelle Fein. These diminutively sized snippets of life are an essay on the charms of the everyday. (At Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 18th).
Valerie Hegarty’s deliciously bizarre watermelon rind takes a bite out of summer at Asya Geisberg Gallery’s fanciful summer group show of ceramic sculpture. (In Chelsea through August 11th).
Liz Craft’s speech bubbles, made into faces by the shapes of protruding ceramic mushrooms, are a standout in JTT’s summer group show, Dirge, which considers how artists engage with accounts of history. Here, Craft merges contemporary text-message bubbles with pre-electrical light (a candle). The mushroom face suggests a voice from 70s counterculture speaking from the void. (On the Lower East Side through July 28th).
Swedish artist Joakim Ojanen’s odd ceramic heads resemble gourds and various animals, in this case, a bird. The creatures formerly manifest themselves in two dimensions as drawings. Now in the round, they allow Ojanen’s strange vision to inhabit space with us. (On view at The Hole on the Lower East Side through July 7th).
Though Yoshitomo Nara’s new work at Pace Gallery is based on traditional Japanese vessel forms, the new ceramic works continue Nara’s practice of tapping into contemporary youth cultures. Whether disaffected or conformist, Nara’s young characters are less the free spirits they normally are; as portly jugs, they come across as more contained. (At Pace Gallery’s 25th Street location through April 29th).
Annabeth Rosen’s curious cluster of bud-like forms titled ‘Roil,’ is a standout in this west-coast sculptor’s first solo show at Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery. Like the oil paintings behind it, the piece suggests a 3-D fingerprint or a living form that has gathered itself together from many parts to present a formidable mass. (On view through March 25th).
Wood makes a surprise appearance in sculptor and ceramic artist Arlene Shechet’s latest sculptures at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., challenging ceramic for primacy in pieces like ‘I Saw the 18th Century.’ Shechet is also currently showing new work at the Frick Collection inspired by 18th century porcelain, but the pieces in Chelsea bear little resemblance to the delicate results of her uptown project, instead suggesting the sturdiness of a corseted matron from a past century. (In Chelsea through Nov 12th).
LA sculptor Peter Shire’s ‘Scorpion’ strikes a fencing pose, but something about the red ball on top of this exaggerated tea-pot shape tones down the menace. Behind it, other sculptures reveal Shire’s involvement with the Memphis design group in the 80s and his own sense of humor in a deeply enjoyable survey of the artist’s work from the 70s to the present. (At Derek Eller Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 9th).
Brie Ruais’ wall mounted sculpture is designed to record the trace of her hands forming the shape of the sculpture, Sally Saul’s little women offer a kind of canvas for her ceramic compositions and Sara Murphy’s leg sawhorses provide a support for unnamed table-top activities. All expound on the human body as inspiration for creativity. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 23rd).
Robert Raphael’s cool-colored constructions of ropes are actually created in ceramic, rendering a traditionally functional material functionless. (At LMAK Gallery through July 30th.)
East Asian tradition meets folk tale characters in the late Kirk Magnus’s ceramic demon, now part of the artist’s mini-30 year retrospective at James Cohan Gallery. Magnus’ deep knowledge of the world’s ceramic arts and his sense of humor are evident in a variety of vessels crafted with different techniques and featuring an assortment of oddball characters. (On the Lower East Side through June 26th).
Whether she is Venus, Sister Ray (a Velvet Underground character), or Penthesilea, the Amazonian Queen, Danish artist Peter Linde Busk’s recurring female character has a jittery, incomplete quality owing to her construction from cast-off and fragmentary materials. Here, Smalti, natural stones, ceramics and more compose a faceless, imperfect creature. (At Derek Eller Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 19th).
Water bottles, wiffle balls and even a laundry basket are the among the discarded items artist Marie Lorenz has fished out of New York’s waterways during her boat-journeys-as-art. Here, she has turned them into a ceramic mobile. (At Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 22nd).
Arranged in vitrines or along this long shelf, Katy Fischer’s ceramic objects look like archaeological finds. They’re a humorous take on the notion that ceramics must have use-value and yet provocative in prompting consideration of what those uses might be. (At Lower East Side gallery Louis B. James through May 1st).
Sally Saul’s arresting ceramic self-portrait portrays her as if in mid-sentence, her eyes looking into the distance as if trying to phrase something just so. Surrounded by tiny attentive birds, what she says has caused nature to stop and listen. (At LaunchF18 on the Lower East Side through March 6th).
In 11R’s serendipitous pairing of ceramics by Jennie Jieun Lee and multiple exposure photograms by Mariah Robertson, each artist creates visual interest by defying convention. Robertson punctuates gorgeously-hued abstractions by cutting her photo paper into a rough, tapering point. Lee crafts vessels from glaze-splashed curls of clay. (At 11R on the Lower East Side through Feb 7th.)
Installation of ceramic by Jennie Jieun Lee and Mariah Robertson, 11R, January 2016.
Inspired by the cave systems of Vinales, Cuba, Teresita Fernandez’s glimmering semi-abstract ceramic mosaic pictures a lush cave interior with the suggestion of human figures in elemental interactions with nature. (At Lehmann Maupin through Dec 31st).
Teresita Fernandez, Vinales (Subterranean), glazed ceramic, 72 x 144 x 1.5 inches, 2015.
Moataz Nasr, Elshaab (the people), 25 ceramic characters (detail seen here), 10.6 x 2.4 x 4 in each (approx.), 2012.
Hilary Harnischfeger, Bovina, ceramic, hydrostone, pigment, crushed glass, oil stick, paper, wood, 20 x 22 x 10 inches, 2015.
Christopher Adams’ ceramic plants appear at once fragile and
robust; the material of their thin, scrolling leaves suggests something
breakable, the vigorous growth at center hints at expansive potential. Garvey Simon Art Access in Chelsea is overrun
with variations on the plant in a range of glazes and finishes, making for a provocative
merger of biology and decoration.
(Through Nov 7th).
Christopher Adams, from the ‘Primordial Garden’ series,
2015.
Paris-based Morgane Tschiember uses Tracy Wiliams’ new Lower East Side space to great effect with this handsome installation of compromised, suspended vessels set off by the huge wall painting ‘Falls.’ (Through Nov 1st).
Morgane Tschiember, installation view of ‘Almost a Kiss’ at Tracy Williams Ltd. on the Lower East Side, Sept 2015.
It’s post-apocalypse in Trisha Baga’s imagination – Florida has mostly sunk into the sea and the array of artifacts left behind, including this Doritos bag and chips, have been rendered in ceramic and put on display. In the video at rear, peacocks pick at a seed portrait of Rosie O’Donnell. Baga’s rich imagination makes an unknown world all the stranger. (At Greene Naftali Gallery in Chelsea through October 3rd).
Trisha Baga, Doritos bag with 4 doritos, glazed ceramic, 2 ¾ x 9 x 6 inches, 2015. Background: Peacock Museum. The Department of Education, video installation, 4 mirrors with fava beans, 18 min, 44 sec, each 23 ½ x 19 1/8 inches, 2015.
Like inedible confections, the surfaces and strange forms of San Francisco artist Ron Nagle’s tiny ceramic sculptures are delectations for the eye. But for every attractive, shiny surface, there’s an opposite impulse to reject clashing color combinations and oddly suggestive bodily forms. (At Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 24th).
Ron Nagle, Long Good Friday, ceramic, porcelain, glaze, catalyzed polyurethane, epoxy resin, 3 ¾ x 2 ½ x 3 ¾ inches, 2015.
Ken Price’s blob of shiny weirdness is an enticement to venture into Matthew Marks Gallery’s back gallery. A standout in this low-key exhibition of work by gallery artists, the shimmery, seductive surface contrasts the suggestion of an unknown organic substance moldering. (In Chelsea through Oct 24th).
Ken Price, Untitled, fired and painted clay, 18 x 17 x 16, 1996-2011.
New Zealand artist Kate Newby’s handmade ceramic skipping stones were a standout last summer at Tracy Williams’ summer group show; a year later, she’s enjoying her first New York solo show at Laurel Gitlen Gallery. Given the extra space to work with, she’s constructed a bright yellow platform to show off tiny handmade sculptures that suggest precious finds along a beach juxtaposed with unexplained spills. (On the Lower East Side through July 31st.)
Kate Newby, installation view of ‘I memorized it I loved it so much,’ wood, wax, concrete, mulberries, paint, 2015.
Ceramic artists Amy Bessone and Matthias Merkel Hess meet in Salon94 Freemans for a two-person show juxtaposing her female torsos, shaped as empty vessels (maybe vases?), and his containers derived from everyday items like paint buckets and wastebaskets. Bessone’s containers pick up on the long association between vessels and the female body in art history, and provocatively change Hess’s work by their proximity. (On the Lower East Side through August 21st).
Installation view of Torsos and Buckets, featuring work by Amy Bessone and Matthias Merkel Hess, July 2015.
Known for massive sculptures of men in blue power suits and seated nudes, the late Bay Area artist pushed the limits of her medium. Chelsea visitors can take the measure of this huge figure, who looks a little startled to have landed on the floor of Nancy Hoffman Gallery. (Through June 27th).
Viola Frey, Falling Man in Suit, ceramic, 74 x 89 x 73 inches, 1991.
Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ newspaper-covered sofa scattered with rough ceramic forms was a standout of the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Here, her first show at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery opens with another couch more boldly occupied by a huge ceramic shape that the Portland, OR based artist refers to as a whale. (On view through June 6th).
Jessica Jackson Hutchins, installation view of ‘I Do Choose,’ with ‘Ultrasuede Wave,’ in foreground, sofa, oil stick, glazed ceramic, 2015.
Known for videos and drawings channeling disillusioned angst, Cameron Jamie takes a new direction with ceramics that suggest natural forms and which are simultaneously object and pedestal. Undulating stalagmites at bottom have a fecal quality while resembling curving bodies; the top form in the foreground brings to mind vertebra or coral. (At Barbara Gladstone Gallery on West 24th Street through May 30th).
Cameron Jamie, installation view of untitled, glazed ceramic sculptures, May 2015.
Brooklyn-based artist KATSU is known for semi-abstract paintings created by drone; here at The Hole, a cluster of ceramic drone sculptures periodically disappears in a cloud of vape-generated smoke. (On the Lower East Side through Feb 22nd).
KATSU, Ceramic drone swarm, ceramic stoneware, 15 x 15 x 3 inches, 2014-2015.
Nature inspires LA-based artist Jennifer Nocon’s gorgeous ceramic and felt installation Sky Diamond, the centerpiece of her solo show at Chelsea’s Tracy Williams, Ltd. Stylized cloud illustrations on ceramic cloud shapes give forth blood-red, kelp-like jets of rain, making for a fascinating and slightly disturbing phenomenon. (Through Feb 14th).
Jennifer Nocon, Sky Diamonds, hand-dyed wool felt, ceramic clay, glaze, gold thread, 100 x 316 inches, 2014.
Now based in Toronto, ‘80s downtown art influencer Alan Belcher makes a New York comeback at Marlborough Gallery this month with work including this ceramic plaque of a .jpg file kept tantalizingly closed. (On the Lower East Side through Nov 16th).
Alan Belcher, ____.jpg, glazed ceramic plaque, 10 x 7 ½ x 1 ½ inches, 2014.
Anxious greyhounds greet visitors to Elizabeth Jaeger’s debut solo show at LES gallery Jack Hanley, setting an oddly expectant mood. Though the space is too large and bright to convey much angst, Jaeger’s weirdly proportioned animals are winningly lively. (Through Nov 9th).
Elizabeth Jaeger, installation view of ‘Six-Thirty’ at Jack Hanley Gallery, October 2014. (Includes ‘Yet to be Titled (Dog),’ ceramic, hydrocal, loose graphite, house paint/latex paint, leather, brass.)
Nick Cave’s latest body of work – filling both of Jack Shainman’s Chelsea galleries – was inspired when Cave was stunned to find a spittoon in the shape of a African-American man’s head at a flea market. Since then, he’s collected similar figures, like this lawn jockey who recalls the legend of a slave boy who froze to death while holding a lantern for George Washington’s historic Delaware River crossing. Standing on a shoe-shine chair and surrounded by a shrine-like collection of bric-a-brac, Cave repositions an icon from America’s troubled past. (On view through Oct 11th).
Nick Cave, Fear Not, Therefore (detail), mixed media including cast-iron figure, shoe shine chair, ceramic birds, strung beads and metal flowers, 77 x 44 x 30 inches, 2014.\
Andrew Edlin Gallery’s riotous group show ‘Purple States’ stands out among summer group shows for its energy. It includes this fanciful yellow, ceramic birdcage by Elisabeth Kley resting on patterns of her creation while a nearby, a friendly saint by legendary folk artist and minister Howard Finster stands and gestures. (In Chelsea through August 22nd).
Elisabeth Kley, Large Yellow Birdcage, glazed ceramic, 2014 on Patterned Scrolls, ink on Japanese paper, 2014. Next to: paint on wood figure, St John, 1999 by Howard Finster. Shooting stars by Howard Finster, mixed media, 1983 is behind.
California-based ceramic artist Cheryl Ann Thomas uses the age-old technique of building a vessel from coils of clay, but Thomas’ coils are so fragile, her pots collapse in the kiln. The results are textile-like forms that seem to embody motion. (At Danese Corey through August 1st).
Cheryl Ann Thomas, Relics 300-303, porcelain, 21 x 24 x 27 inches, 2012.
Iconic ceramic artist Ken Price launched this series of monumental bronze composite sculptures late in his life, bringing a career of innovation to a close with suggestive, almost glowing forms. (At Chelsea’s Matthew Marks Gallery through June 28th).
Ken Price, installation view of ‘Large Sculptures’ at Matthew Marks Gallery, in the foreground: ‘Ceejay,’ painted bronze composite, 48 x 48 3/8 x 46 inches, 2011.
Under a stunning sunrise, time runs out, nature takes its course and a masked figure keeps up appearances in this attractively simple yet hard-to-interpret painting by Brooklyn artist Jaya Howey. How it all fits together seems to be less important than noting how it’s all happening at once. (At Bureau on the Lower East Side through June 15th).
Jaya Howey, Opening Narrative with Frame Work 3, oil and acrylic on canvas, ceramic, epoxy, 119 x 94cm, 2014.
New York ceramic artist Kathy Butterly’s new work at 57th Street gallery Tibor de Nagy demonstrates her inexhaustible ability to invent new, evocative forms for both standard vessels and abstract shapes. Though less than 9 inches high, the tiny artworks are powerful. (Through April 12th).
Kathy Butterly, Chatter (foreground), clay, glaze, 6 x 7 x 4 1/8 inches, 2013.
A bird woman, eerie twins and a girl with branches growing out of her body are just some of the odd characters populating Swedish artist Klara Kristalova’s show of evocative new ceramic sculpture at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the Lower East Side. Inspired by folk tales, daily life, movies and even overheard conversations, the psychologically charged figures hint at intriguing stories. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery through April 26th. Kristalova is also showing at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin on Madison Ave through April 12th).
Klara Kristalova, Birdwoman, glazed stoneware, 2013.
Though she lives in New York, Lisa Sanditz’ attention is on the country, with a new series of paintings that consider food production and sculptures inspired by Arizona cactus farms. Here, fanciful rainbow cacti in muted colors face off through Styrofoam cups like those that farmers use to protect cactus branches from cold. (At Chelsea’s CRG Gallery through March 15th).
Lisa Sanditz, Rainbow, glazed ceramic, planters, cinderblocks, plywood, rocks, 20 x 22 ½ x 8 inches, 2014.
Iconic Process artist Lynda Benglis excites the senses with a new selection of ceramic sculptures hand formed from tubes and slabs of clay. (At Chelsea’s Cheim & Read through Feb 15th).
Lynda Benglis, Untitled, glazed ceramic, 20 x 16, 12 inches, 2013.
Despite ceramicist Peter Voulkos’ huge influence on contemporary ceramic art, New York hasn’t been treated to a solo presentation of his work since 1997. Through this week, 57th Street gallery Franklin Parrasch breaks the dry spell with a sampling of work from the 50s to the 90s from a single private collection. (Through Nov 23rd).
Peter Voulkos, Iron Head, ceramic, 1990.
Seattle-based ceramic artist Akio Takamori’s sleeping women rest in round bundles on low pedestals, their eyes open slightly, seemingly observing us while we’re spying on them in their sleep. Colorful and curvy like Matisse figures, it’s as if drawings have materialized in three dimensions. (At Chelsea’s Barry Friedman Gallery through Oct 30th.)
Akio Takamori, Sleeping Woman in Red Dress with Orange Hair, stoneware with underglazes, 2013.
