Key West Pottery is just what the world needs with bright, zingy colours and classical forms avec un twist. There are so many pieces on my wish list, starting with this polka dot floor vase. I’ll take a mango bowl, and this fabulous cobalt blue crocodile vase. There’s just so much joy and humour in each piece.
“Paper is a magical material for the endless possibilities it offers; it can be modeled, folded, rolled up, curled up, painted and each technique creates completely different effects,” says Alessandra Fabre Repetto, whose delicate paper flowers caught my eye this morning. The Italian artist fashions everything from necklaces and boutonnieres to papier–mâché vessels and wreaths, all in a vibrant palette pinks, blues, and greens. I love the shape of these flowers, maybe because they remind me of ceramic cups and saucers balancing on elegant, spindly stems.
“The bright colours, the exaggerated shapes and the over-sized pieces mock the circus that is our day-to-day,” writes Xanthe Somers in her artist’s bio. There’s an outlandish over-the-topness to her ceramic sculpture that steals the limelight from most else in my Instagram feed. I love how she re-imagines the conventional vase –– some are almost as tall as she is –– and how her lighting is both functional and wildly eccentric. “My use of color, pattern, shape, size and form are all indicative of a search for something slightly different,” she says, “something that asks you to question prevailing ideas about need, function, beauty and aesthetics.”
Artist, Sarah Boyts Yoder has developed a visual vocabulary of shapes and motifs that are the basis of her wildly colourful and expressive paintings. To watch her at work in her Charlottesville studio, mixing paints with well-worn brushes and fingertips and sweeping across her canvases as though she’s a five-year-old at play is such an energizing sight. She describes her work as “thoughtlessly careful, casually precious and carelessly precise,” all of which can only be achieved when one’s grip on the brush isn’t too tight. “I love the idea of letting go of control and in doing so, making room for the unexpected—for surprise.”
Quilting –– much like pottery, papier-mâché and printmaking –– is both a humble craft and a fine art. While Kathleen Probst‘s bold colours and minimal patterns grace gallery walls, Brigitte Singh‘s intricate paisleys live in baby cots. Both are skillfully made, and designed with huge imagination, and neither is more than a humble quilt, nor less than a work of art. There are no quilts more beautiful, and more original than the ones created by the residents of Gee’s Bend in Alabama’s Black Belt. Last year, Gee’s Bend artist, Sally Mae Pettway Mixon‘s multi-hued quilt landed on the wall of London’s Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition. “No needlework, flowers, cut paper, shell-work or any such baubles shall be admitted,” read the original requirements of the show back in the 1770s. How far we’ve come, and how long it took.
Natalie Novak‘s tapestries take inspiration from ancient weaving techniques, and reflect the artist’s interest in mythology, symbolism and the super natural world. Her early work reminds me of the Navajo blankets and rugs my brought home from a trip to Santa Fe in the 90’s. This one here with its many bold reds and avocado green is such a beauty. This series looks like bleeding rainbows, and I love all the rich details in her tarot inspired tapestries. It’s cool to see a contemporary spin –– neon and metallic yarns –– on this ancient art form.
It’s Lydia Hardwick‘s bold and graphic patterns that pulled me in. Her designs remind me of ones we might see on African mud cloth. Hardwick works with stoneware and terracotta and uses stained slips and stained clay to create her surface decoration. Her pieces pay homage to traditional ceramics, while feeling utterly contemporary. This “grogged pot” is my favourite –– the ultimate vessel for flaming orange tulips.
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