Lauren Mabry is recognized internationally for her bold, dynamic glazes and inventive use of ceramic material, color, and form. Based in abstraction, her work embraces experimentation as a way to investigate physical states of matter in relationship to painting, objects, and landscape. Mabry’s work is in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO), Daum Museum of Contemporary Art (Sedalia, MO), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS), and Sheldon Museum of Art (Lincoln, NE). She is the recipient of individual grants from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Independence Foundation, and the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts .
In 2024 Mabry was a resident artist for three months at the prestigious John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, WI. She has also completed residencies at Jingdezhen International Studio in Jingdezhen, China, the Gaya Ceramic Art Center in Bali, Indonesia, and Mission Clay Products in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2007, Mabry completed her BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, and she received her MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2012. She has lived and worked in Philadelphia, PA since 2012 and is currently renovating her permanent studio in a small commercial building. Her work is currently represented by Ferrin Contemporary (MA) and Pentimenti Gallery (PA).
I make ceramic sculptures and dimensional glaze paintings that capture uncontrolled transformation. My sculptures appear as objects in transition as if plucked from a chain reaction. These ever-dynamic compositions feature rich, vibrant glazes that remain in constant fluctuation between flowing liquids and solid structures. By the inherent nature of the process, the work challenges perceptions and the physical state of matter. I am compelled by vivid, hyper-real colors and textures that seem to shift before the eye, providing pathways to imagine evolutions beyond this world. The work is grounded in the physicality of earthly materials and objecthood. However, it is also something less tangible: a contemplative, psychedelic space. Each piece is a reflection of my desire to understand the relationships between control, chance, and divine timing.
I work in highly experimental modalities because I am compelled by the limits of ceramic chemistry. The forms are made of hollow clay, then stuffed full of glaze materials. During the kiln firing at peak temperature, the glaze materials inside the structure melt, become viscous, and drip out of the holes stretching into colorful swirls and melted formations of glass that intermingle with geometric ceramic structures. Making this work forces me to let go of expectations (what I predict the piece will look like emerging from the kiln) versus reality (how the glazes spontaneously drip). In an art historical context, these pieces may be understood in relation to Process art, Abstract Expressionism, and Surrealism. Formally, the work evokes toxic landscapes, architecture, and candy-like caverns. My investigations are incredibly specific to abstraction and the ceramic medium, but they are also universal in their aim to grasp at natural and unnatural forces.