Spotted | Succulent Paintings, Robert Mapplethorpe, a Ceramic Collage + more!

Welcome to Spotted, our round-up of top ceramic finds from the world of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics. We kick of the week with some “Not-Clay” finds with these two-dimensional artworks.

Robert Minervini

Abstract and balmy potted succulents in a cantilevered window overlook scenic bays in Robert Minervini‘s Life in the Shadows still life series from the artist’s first solo exhibition at Edward Cella Art and Architecture (September 9 – October 28, 2017).

Imbued with symbolic imagery, temporal concepts, and worldly vanity the artist describes his work by saying: “I am not interested in depicting specific sites…my source material is made up from places that I see and reimagine in my studio…I manipulate space the same way you might manipulate pots and things on your patio.”

We especially love the detail in this one from his Invisible Reflections series!

Learn more about Minervini here.

Eva Kot’atkova

Not clay, but we love this a ceramic-inspired collage by Czech artist Eva Kot’atkove.

Robert Mapplethorpe

American iconoclastic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe began to shoot his highly stylized black and white compositions of brutally honest subjects in 1973, Phaidon writes. His work featured studio portraits of celebrities, nude figure studies, self-portraits and delicate flower still-lifes, often reaching over the lips of glass and ceramic vases—their obvious feminine grace striking a balance with masculine virility.

Beginning in 1973 and until his death in 1989, Mapplethorpe explored the flower with extraordinary dedication, using a range of photographic processes — from Polaroids to dye-transfer color works. In carefully constructed compositions, he captured roses, orchids, snapdragons, daisies, tulips and other species — both common and rare — and forever transformed the way we perceive a classic and familiar subject.

German-based photographer Candida Höfer built this elegant scene of delicate china stacked on top of a shallow terracotta pot. Upon deeper observation, a narrative appears to unfurl of a late night of solitude in pub, perhaps a moment of reflection and contemplation (maybe even writing) over a cup of hot tea.

Artsy further describes Höfer’s process:

In majestic large-format color photography, Candida Höfer captures the psychological residue left behind in empty public and institutional spaces. Höfer meticulously composes her shots, positioning herself symmetrically either in the center of rooms or along a diagonal that best reveals the space’s internal architecture. She prefers places that contain an institutional history, embodied either in texts or in structures, such as libraries, museums, and zoos.

Daniel Sprick

With his characteristic soft, muted palette, American realist painter Daniel Sprick considers a dreamy balancing act in his Blue Dish and Eggshell; off-center, poised, a jagged egg remnant rests atop a ceramic cake plate, which is held up by a small bronze Ganesh (a remover of obstacles). Beyond, is another ceramic cake stand, this one is a monotone deep turquoise. Breaking up this blue dream is a small black and white checkerboard box.

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