Sculpture, painting, tableware
Permanent and precious and fragile all at once, ceramics—clay that has been shaped, fired, sometimes decorated or glazed—was, in its earliest forms crafted by human hands, a purely cultural material. The first Venuses, goddesses, date back to 8000 BC.
With the sedentarization of humanity, much later ages saw the development of the utilitarian ceramics, now omnipresent in our modern lives. But the boundary between functional and artistic has always proven fluid, and ceramics now occupy an important social and cultural role in our societies.
Whether destined for functional practicality or purely contemplation, contemporary ceramics serve to impart cultural values, to express identities, to help situate us in our world.
Taking this conception as its guiding principle, “Ceramics of our Time” features the work of multiple ceramic artists whose varied styles and techniques produce strikingly eloquent objects in which the interplay of the functional, the decorative, and the artistic is ubiquitous.
These works are accompanied by a series of paintings created by five different artists. Each approaches the theme of ceramics from a unique perspective yet the choice of objects and their arrangement in each work reflect their expressive role and cultural value.
This exhibition thus aims to convey the thread of thought and sensitivity that runs through each of these beautiful and diverse creations: the value of human craftsmanship, the desire for expression, sharing, and connection.
A permanent artist of the gallery, Cécile employs an ancient technique—majolica, or decoration on raw glazed earthenware—to create pieces of absolute modernity. Sculptural works where traditional motifs and contemporary forms joyfully coexist.
Rooted in the tradition of French still life painting, Sophie Dumas’ paintings depict contemporary utilitarian ceramics.
The chosen objects, along with their arrangement, reflect a contemporary architectural spirit, a strong expression of elegant form with spare decor— a minimalist aesthetic characteristic of our time.
Hélène Loussier’s anthropomorphic stoneware figurines follow in the tradition of the earliest prehistoric Venuses and serve as symbolic or dreamlike amulets of our time.
Personal talismans meant to accompany an individual, they are both tenderly expressive and receptive to the viewer’s emotions.
These oil paintings portray ceramic objects from our daily lives, highlighting the fundamental social aspect of this material.
From coffee cups in a bistro to a bowl of apples set on a tablecloth, ceramics in Anastasia’s work symbolize sharing and togetherness— a theme supported by the rich palette and generous brushstrokes of this painter, whose main focus is on the simple moments of everyday life.
For this exhibition, the artist presents a collection of painted works using engobe on earthenware, both flat and in three-dimensional form.
Often depicting a playful mise en abyme which features ceramics as both subject and medium, the artist’s works offer a fascinating duo between the creation and representation of ceramics.
His modernist style is fully aligned with a current trend in ceramic decoration that embodies an aesthetic of lightness ans spontaneity, breaking free from the formality of traditional graphic codes.
Drawing inspiration and technique from French, Spanish, and Moroccan ceramic traditions, this artist creates tableware art objects in glazed earthenware. Her elegant decorations feature soft, often organic graphics, with vibrant and warm colors.
Practical, elegant, and joyful, these creations are designed for sharing, conviviality, and the French “art de vivre.”
These intimate paintings, where silence and calm prevail, reveal the ceramics of our private lives and offer moments of solitude and reflection.
The staging of plain or modestly decorated utilitarian ceramics, with an airy composition, provides an antidote to the busyness of our daily lives.
Highlights of the permanent collection of the Gallery, these powerful and elegant stoneware sculptures connect us to the beginnings of human artistic expression.
The evocation of a primal connection with the animal world, the desire to leave a mark of an existence or a moment, and an attempt to escape time, all inspire this material that by its nature is both fragile and permanent.
This renowned watercolorist, who has a particular affinity for scenes of old workshops, presents for “Ceramics of our Time” a series of paintings depicting a pottery workshop in the Southwest of France.
The atmosphere of a craft workshop, the well-used tools, the glowing light, remind us that these objects of our daily lives have a history, a place of origin, a soul.
Wood-fired like the very first ceramics, these stoneware pots evoke ancient forms: from Neolithic Eastern ceramics to female figures in Archaic Greece, all the way to more modern and constructed architectural shapes.
These works, born in fire, escape artistic control, bending the artist’s ambition to the will of the flame. They compel us to recognize the beauty born from the unexpected, the serendipity found in imperfection.
At the heart of this artist’s research lies the development of unique glazes from ground rocks and plant ashes, with which creates poetic, ethereal landscape motifs on his stoneware pottery.
His deep understanding of the natural world, of the molecular composition of minerals and botanical elements guides his creation of glazes with specific structural and chromatic qualities.
All his pieces are wood-fired, using specific essences of wood in a specific order during the firing, in order to further draw from nature and complete the beauty of his works.
This amazing collection of works from a deeply experienced ceramic artist demonstrate the manner in which the most basic of naturally sourced materials – clay chief among them – allow sophisticated artistic expression.
A collection of tableware items crafted in porcelain. Beautifully simple pieces, meant for occasions of sharing, designed to transform an ordinary moment into a small ritual to be savored.
Pieces that bear the visible marks of handcrafting, meant to pass from one pair of hands to another, evoking sharing and generosity.
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