Details
By Karen Swami
A monograph of French artist Karen Swami’s ceramic work, profiling her chamotte sandstone clays from smoked, bare, Kintsugi, cobalt, Urushi lacquer, and galuchat glaze. With the underlaying concept of movement and life, to Swami, clay is a living thing: it must be watered, cared for, kneaded, and shaped. With the turning of the wheel, movement brings the clay to life, and then, in the uncertain atmosphere of the kiln, each piece is transmutable and living. Karen Swami: Ceramics in Motion explores the artist’s work, process, studio, inspirations, and details on clay types and finishes.
Dimensions
Details
By Karen Swami
A monograph of French artist Karen Swami’s ceramic work, profiling her chamotte sandstone clays from smoked, bare, Kintsugi, cobalt, Urushi lacquer, and galuchat glaze. With the underlaying concept of movement and life, to Swami, clay is a living thing: it must be watered, cared for, kneaded, and shaped. With the turning of the wheel, movement brings the clay to life, and then, in the uncertain atmosphere of the kiln, each piece is transmutable and living. Karen Swami: Ceramics in Motion explores the artist’s work, process, studio, inspirations, and details on clay types and finishes.
Dimensions
French artist Karen Swami first experienced working with clay at the age of five, but it wasn’t until 2009 that she re-discovered ceramics by way of a potter’s wheel she set up in the corner of her office. From business school to finance and film production, Swami’s increasingly larger ceramics “slowly invaded her space and time” until it was time to enter the world of ceramic art. “To touch, to throw, to smooth, to incise, to encrust, each step requires a movement,” she explains. The resulting work, too, is if as in motion, with dynamic finishes and the monumental swelling or lengthening of forms. Working between Paris and Burgundy, Swami creates ceramic sculptures and vessels in colors and textures that evoke ancient cultures and forms.
SHOWS
The Vessel, October 12 - November 16, 2023