Curatorial Statement
Gallery Reception: Friday, February 7, 2020 from 6-9 pm MT
Work Posted Online: Monday, February 10, 2020 by 10 am MT
In my work, I seek to contrast and balance my control and intentions for working with the material of clay with the organic and unexpected results of the firing process. I build gridded forms referencing the structure of metal work and woven baskets at a scale common to domestic objects. I work is built slowly with thin coils which retain a visual memory of the marks of my hands and a history of the labor involved in the process. These coils become lines which provide a structure which supports the form, similar to a contour line drawing. When fired the iron rich clay begins to flux out and the carefully placed lines begin to move, sometimes with dynamic and precarious results. The surface is then built up with thick layers of Egyptian paste, or “repaired” with polymer clay, adding contemporary colors and resilience in re-defining my intentions for the finished piece.
-Priya Thoresen
Priya Thoresen was selected as a 2018 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist and has an MFA from Arizona State University in Tempe. She began working with clay as a functional potter at Berea College where she was involved with the school’s ceramic apprenticeship program, taught English in Japan, and participated in residencies and a post baccalaureate program before attending graduate school. Priya has exhibited work regionally and nationally in exhibitions including the Ann Arbor Art Center’s 95th Annual All Media Exhibition, and the San Angleo Art Museum’s Ceramics Biennial. Priya currently lives in Minneapolis where she teaches part time at the University of Minnesota and Concordia University in Saint Paul.