10.18.21

Excerpt: Exhibition

Sean Gerstley is Playing With Scale at New York’s Tiniest New Design Gallery

When we first started writing about ceramic furniture back in 2014 — first with Chris Wolston's terracotta chairs, then on through to Eny Lee Parker, Kelsie Rudolph, Floris Wubben, Virginia Sin, BZIPPY, and more — we had no idea we would end up here: in Superhouse's new, 100 sq.ft. vitrine/gallery on the second floor of a Chinatown mall, filled to bursting with more than a dozen such works by the young designer Sean Gerstley, whose process and aesthetic we can only describe as simply thrilling.

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07.07.21

Up and Coming

Sean Gerstley’s Clay Objects Live In A World Of Their Own

Following the trajectory of Delaware-born artist and designer Sean Gerstley’s practice, it feels a bit like he’s always, intentionally, scaling down. “I went to Rhode Island School of Design for architecture before finding ceramics,” he says of his creative coming-of-age. “As a kid I was, and still am, super interested in interior spaces. My ceramic practice started as sculptural work that was kind of about interiors and domestic space in abstract-installation form.”

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05.04.21

Sighted

Molecular Biologist By Day, Ceramicist By Night: How Science Informs Abid Javed’s Art

The Hong Kong–born, London-based artist Abid Javed became a ceramicist almost by accident: While studying for his PhD in biochemistry, Javed began searching for a medium he could dabble in to fulfill a desire to make 3D forms inspired by molecules. "I considered glass initially, but it seemed too technical to pursue as a hobby," Javed recalls. "Ceramics felt and became more intuitive." A hobby soon became a full-blown art practice; the resulting series is called Pleomorphs.

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04.14.21

Q+A

Emily Mullin’s 3D Reliefs Are Like Morandi Still-Lifes On Acid

The new sculptures that make up Brooklyn-based artist Emily Mullin’s just-opened show at Jack Hanley Gallery are, to put it lightly, a riot: fringed or seemingly filigreed ceramic vessels scrawled on with what looks like crayon or painted in imprecise patterns, sitting atop blobby, brightly colored plinths. At first glance, you wouldn’t associate the boisterous reliefs with the quiet, muted tones found in still lifes by 20th-century Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, but upon further inspection, the comparison makes a lot of sense.

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04.03.21

Saturday Selects

Week of March 29, 2021

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a reissued Memphis classic, a new hotel in Baja, and a cache of European ceramic finds, including this mug with #tinyballs.

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03.23.21

Excerpt: Exhibition

An Iconic Children’s Book is the Inspiration Behind This Incredibly Joyous Exhibition

A friend of mine and I have often joked about how Goodnight Moon, the classic 1947 children's book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, would make an excellent moodboard for a gloriously maximalist interior design project: The incredible color blocking! The striped drapes! The scalloped picture frames! The animal hide rug! And while we still would love to see those benchmarks turned into something truly livable, a new exhibition has done the next best thing.

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03.11.21

Sighted

Xanthe Somers Wants Us to Question Everything About Our Relationship With Domestic Objects

As a self-taught ceramicist, not knowing the "right" way to do things has led Somers down some experimental paths. Clay has become a medium for her to interrogate concepts beneath its fragile surface. As a contemporary ceramic sculptor, she describes her pieces as a satirical and questioning take on domestic objects. “We cannot treat domestic objects as inert beings; they have place and purpose and motivation,” she says. “Clay has a long history of being used for functional, domestic objects that are laden with political and social constructs."

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02.12.21

Excerpt: Exhibition

These Ceramic Lamps, Paired With Delicate Paper and Bamboo Shades, Are About to Be Everywhere

We first stumbled across Bennet Schlesinger's lamps on the Instagram of a friend. Perched atop two handmade ceramic bases were shades made from translucent paper sheets, stretched across a cambered latticework of bamboo strips. They were glowing and fresh and new, and we immediately fell in love. Now, the Southern California–based Schlesinger, who designs under the name Lightsong Exchange, is co-headlining an exhibition of his work at the new Los Angeles gallery Stanley’s.

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01.30.21

Saturday Selects

Week of January 25, 2021

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a funny lamp with cartoon hands, a new space for emerging design in Paris, and a collection of furniture by SU favorite EJR Barnes for a collector in London (above).

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01.25.21

Up and Coming

In This Mexican Ceramicist’s Pottery, Traditional Clay Gets a Refined and Contextual Upgrade

Eugenia Díaz Peon, a Mexican ceramicist who prefers to go by the nickname of Uxi, discovered her calling not very long ago. As co-founder of the Yucatán-based brand Région, she began traveling in recent years to remote locations outside of her home base in Mérida, to learn from the traditional craftspeople who typically work far outside the city. There, she was particularly drawn to a clay known as “el barro de Ticul," or the mud of Ticul. Rough, dirty, and filled with impurities, the clay is like a terracotta, but with a more luminous color and texture.

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11.19.20

Gift Guides

Color-Blocked Wetsuits and Ceramic Stash Boxes: The 2020 Sight Unseen Gift Guide, Part III

May we interest you in a gloopy borosilicate coffee pourer? How about a checkerboard body pillow? A donabe, to cook all that rice you've been hoarding, and a surfboard, if you're lucky enough to live in a temperate climate, seem like perfect quarantine gifts. Those items and more were chosen for today's gift guide by a selection of Sight Unseen's far-flung contributing editors and writers: Los Angeles–based Dana Covit and Jennifer S. Li, Milan-based Laura May Todd, Cape Town– based Alix-Rose Cowie, and New York–based Shoko Wanger, Natalie Shukur, and Drew Zeiba.

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10.26.20

Excerpt: Exhibition

In This Banner Year for Outdoor Art, Anders Ruhwald’s IMA Garden Installation is a Standout Favorite

At Newfields, the gardens that surround the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Detroit-based ceramicist Anders Herwald Ruhwald installed an exhibition of 10 large-scale ceramic works. Titled Century Garden, the sculptures — many of which are meant to hold plants — were tucked into the wilder, more overgrown parts of the garden; though the ceramic surfaces appeared almost tie-dyed, mottled as they were with yellows and blues, tangerine oranges and greens, they were camouflaged amongst the flowers and native plants, creating an uncanny effect.

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