Clay Portraits - Looking At Us

Art Reception

Ceramic Sculpture by Suzanne Storer, exhibiting alongside Mark England in the Gallery at Library Square, Level 4 · Exhibit runs from Mar 5 - April 15

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The sculptures in relief that you see here most often combine line and form. Brushed lines, traditional high relief and full 3 dimensional form are combined together within the same artwork. Working this way allows me to create unsentimental compassionate depictions of people. Expanding a 2D image enhances the impact and makes the final result sensible from multiple points of view. Some areas are fully expanded into 3D while others are left flat so that surface brushwork can finish defining the image in that area.

More and more I use homeless people as models. It is important to me to sculpt them. I often find people in city parks, paying them for their time to pose for me. Each of these figurative artworks bears a strong physical and/or psychological likeness to the person I’ve depicted. After all, each of us has spent a lifetime becoming who we are. 

My work was reviewed extensively in Sculpture Review Magazine in 2014 and a copy is here on display for you to see. The magazine’s reviews mention that I am breaking new ground in the historically rich genre of sculpture in relief. “Alec, My Son” was shown in 2012 at NCECA’s Ecumene: Global Interface in American Ceramics at the 45th Assembly of the International Academy of Ceramics, Santa Fe, NM. Upon seeing this sculpture Mark Del Vecchio, author of the book Post Modern Ceramics, commented that he knows of no one currently creating finer ceramic work than mine in high relief. This sculpture earned the Proskauer Prize for non traditional sculpture in 2016 at the National Sculpture Society’s 83 Annual Competition in South Carolina. And a senior citizen volunteering at Ogden’s Golden Hours Center modeled for “The Lunch Lady”, a semifinalist in the Smithsonian Institution’s Portrait Competition. I am honored that extraordinary sculptor, Cristina Cordova, is including some of my sculptures in her new to be released book “Mastering Sculpture - The Figure in Clay.”
Our pandemic has put a damper on art exhibitions and I am very thankful to the Salt Lake Library for presenting my work.
www.suzannestorer.com

ARTIST BIO:

Suzanne was raised in Corvallis, Oregon by a former army nurse mother and a wood researcher father who loved trees and the old growth forests that still exist. After graduating from the California College of the Arts she continued her studies in clay workshops most notably with ceramic sculptors Akio Takamori, Sylvia Davis and Cristina Cordova and with drawing instructors Ralph Borge and Paul Davis.

As it turned out teenage years playing tournament tennis helped prepare her for her career as a sculptor. The importance of correctly perceiving perspective and proportion, body awareness, continual practice to keep her eye/hand skills sharp and perseverance all relate to both the worlds of sport and sculpture. 

Suzanne’s work gives us a fresh contemporary perspective into our present human condition. Climate change, the covid pandemic and our country’s political morass all play their part in her current work. She especially enjoys the collaborative process of commissioned work and hopes that her art can further our compassion for each other.

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