Thematic
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INTRODUCTION
Ceramics is an ancestral, yet staunchly contemporary, art form that reinvigorates sculptural practice. Through unconventional combinations of materials, the appropriation of traditional techniques, and the misappropriation of utilitarian forms, the artists surprise us with an explosion of color and texture.
Marina APOLLONIO, Dinamica circolare, Esadecagono, 1970-2010 © Collection privée, Photo Bertrand Hugues
POUPLARD Benoît, Céladonie 14, 2021, Collection privée, Emaux céladons sur porcelaine modifiées (cuisson gaz en réduction 1300 degrés), 26x33x16cm, Photo © Benoît Pouplard
BELLY OF THE EARTH
In many myths and legends, humans are beings made from clay. Creatures become creators, and artists, in their turn, shape clay to reinvent a world. They give birth to landscapes and characters inspired by our collective unconscious, our dreams, and our nightmares.
Jean DEWASNE, Bohème antisculpture, 1968 © Collection privée, Photo Bertrand Hugues
WENZEL Anne, Under construction (Blue Eyes Crying), 2018, Collection Fondation Villa Datris, Céramique, 90x44x32cm, Photo © John Stoel
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIAL
Ghostly fossils, precious waste, banal elements of construction made joyous: in clay, these objects are magnified, sublimated, and replicated. Appropriating the anthropological value of ceramics, its status as witness of ancient civilizations, the artists propose a futuristic vision of the vestiges of the present.
Jesús-Rafael SOTO, _320 st (Ravena), 1984, Collection privée, Adagp Paris 2022, Photo Bertrand Hugues
BERNADET Jean-Baptiste, Untitled (Sign), 2019, Collection Fondation Villa Datris, Pierre de lave émaillée, 100x100x0,5cm, Courtesy artiste et Almine Rech, Photo © Bertrand Michau, © ADAGP, Paris, 2023
RAW MATERIAL
In the hands of artists, ceramics celebrates flora and fauna in all their power and majesty. As a homage to nature, clay transforms into creatures inspired by earthy origins that also allow us to glimpse a future in the making.
Ann Veronica JANSSENS, Magic Mirror Green, 2014, Collection privée, ADAGP Paris 2022, Photo Tim Perceval
KRISTALOVA Klara, Youth as I remember it, 2020, Collection Fondation Villa Datris, Porcelaine émaillée, 64x45x33cm, Courtesy artiste et Perrotin, Photo © Claire Dorn © ADAGP, Paris 2023
HEALING MATERIAL
A site of artistic experimentation in three dimensions, ceramics is, more than any other medium, subject to chance. Redoubling their inventiveness, the artists play with the tensions and constraints of the medium, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses through the prism of human nature and resilience.
Marina APOLLONIO, Dinamica circolare, Esadecagono, 1970-2010 © Collection privée, Photo Bertrand Hugues
HUSKY Suzanne, OMO, perles de parfum, Série douceurs de fleurs, 2018, Collection RAJA ART, Photo © Franck Couvreur