Ceramic still lifes, giant coil Banyan tree sculptures, and more! Welcome back to Spotted––our top finds from the world of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics nicely packaged here just for you! Enjoy!
Jason Lim’s Giant Coil Banyans
Regarded as Singapore’s leading ceramic and performance artists, Jason Lim has exhibited across the globe including in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Singapore, The Phillipines, Thailand and the Netherlands. He also represented his country during the 2007 Venice Biennale.
“Jason’s ceramics transcend the tradition of functionality. Almost sculptural instead, his works take on strikingly organic forms – an asymmetrical plate, a sealed vessel or a perforated bottle. Deliciously earthy yet fragile, the duality in his works prompts one to ponder over the creation process, while their asymmetry provokes a rethinking of balance and symmetry. Unpretentious in nature, Jason’s ceramics exude a beautiful stark rawness that reflects the artist’s skill and energy.”
Artist’s Biography
Lim’s performance art series Under The Shadow of the Banyan Tree comprises nearly week-long building sessions using giant coils to construct his Banyan trees.
“The strength of performance comes from the visual imagery it presents. It is a visual art form. In every performance, the artist is concerned with the image created. The body in used in the imagery adds to the power of the artist’s presence. To me, I am creating three-dimensional images in my performances.”
Jason Lim
Explore more of Lim’s performance art here.
Read a Phaidon interview with Lim, as featured in Vitamin C, here.
Explore more about Lim’s Under the Shadow of the Banyan performances here.
Elizabeth Alexander’s Heirloom
Elizabeth Alexander’s series of hand-cut found porcelain and bone china in Heirloom is reminiscent of weather- and rain-worn soapstone. In each piece, walls, tops, and bases have been cut away revealing a new depth of perspective.
Explore more of Alexander’s Heirloom range here.
Keith Edmier Ceramic Still Lifes
Keith Edmier‘s work draws deeply from his personal histories and memories growing up outside of Chicago.
In his Bremen Towne installation (2008), he created a full-scale reproduction of the kitchen from his childhood home, paired with sculptures and collages based on the house’s decorative elements. His sculptures frequently employ alternative techniques and materials, such as a roll of sod cast in pink resin or cycad plants cast in basalt lava.
Artsy
Continuing to explore meaningful concepts and subjects, Edmier’s floral imagery allows the artist to tiptoe sensuality and Mapplethorpe-esque eroticism.
Learn more about Edmier here.
Read a New York Times article here.
Not Clay, but Ming-style Ceramics Drawings
Brendan Lee Satish Tang‘s collection of drawings Swimmers appear like 3-dimensional blue and white pattern Ming Dynasty ceramics, whose patterns , the artist states he has appropriated and altered––as the they have been for centuries (read: Delft, Spode, Iznik)–– to yield a watery, pool-like surface.
In this rippling pattern I have also placed two wading figures that appear to be oblivious to the complexity around them. The reason for representing groups of figures, as opposed to a sole figure, is based in my feeling that we learn traditions and cultural practices from one another; these things are not hard wired. Furthering that notion, my groupings are usually parental figures with children or peers splashing about.
Artist’s Statement
It is my hope that the work discusses the daily navigation of the cultures that surround us.
Explore more of Tang’s work here.
Tania Pérez Córdova Digital Embeds
Tania Pérez Córdova’s giant ceramic slabs, organic in modality and execution, are juxtaposed with SIM card inclusions embedded in the clay. The works were first presented as part of the artist’s Smoke, Nearby exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, April 15, 2017 – August 20, 2017).
“The everyday objects she uses evoke personal experiences and memories. As a result, Tania Pérez Córdova’s sculptures are simultaneously personal and public, intimate and distant, familiar and generic, meaningful and inconseuqential. The are inanimate objects that––if we allow ourselves to engage with them––come to life and reveal individual values, affectations, and narratives”
MCA, Chicago
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