Contemporary Ceramics I

Ceramic is interesting stuff. It is usually considered as craft, something utilitarian (hey it's true that it was invented & develped as containers of water, food and crops since the stone age) or decorative object but actually many ancient-period figurines are made of clay/dirt - that are also the origin of sculpture. Fastforwarding all the directions how ceramic came along through its long history around the globe, here are some very limited examples I've seen here New York. This is a vase by Yoshitomo Nara, made in this year 2010, "Born to Lose".. Very Nara-san taste, cute yet rebellious. Does it also look like some musical instument?
It is on view at his retrospective at Asia Society through January 2 2011:
http://sites.asiasociety.org/yoshitomonara/

As of today, Ken Price is the biggest, living ceramic artist in terms of the market value and popularity, perhaps. This is from his recent solo show at Matthew Marks this spring. The surface of his sculpture is just magical, absolutely stunning under
natural sunlight. No doubt, he is a LA artist:
http://www.matthewmarks.com/exhibitions/2010-02-06_ken-price/

One of the rookie ceramic artists is Klara Kristalova, I believe! Yes her work is eerie and in fact we won't forget once we see it.
This masked, seated girl sculpture (+ drawings on the wall too) was exhibited at a booth of the gallery Magnus Karlsson from her native country Sweden. Lehmann Maupin will hold her solo exhibition in Winter 2011.
Here is the artist's website: http://www.kristalova.se/

French conceptual artist Daniel Buren also does something in ceramic, with his signature stripes. The show is just open
at Friedman & Vallois in UES. If you like something minimal abstract..go see it and maybe you wanna take one home with you?
http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/18876/5436/friedman-vallois-new-york/visit/

This is an example of coupling ceramic with something else at a contemporary art gallery.
The exhibition "Sèvres and Savage" is up in the back room of the new location of Schroeder Romero & Shredder in Chelsea.
It is a curated show with typical 19th century porcelain ware and figurines by the mega French porcelain kingdom Sèvres's craftmanship and black and white photographs of statues by the American photographer Naomi Savage. On view through Nov 13:
http://srandsgallery.tumblr.com/