Recent Ceramic Sculpture

Dutch ceramic artist Wouter Dam has established an international reputation for his monochromatic sculpture. In a new group of twelve works, the artist presents the most recent transformation of his delicate, soft and organic forms. He works through a series of processes, yet keeps an abstract reference to the natural world. His open, curvaceous forms are "first based on intuition from the raw elements themselves and then influenced by previous works and natural shapes like maritime creatures, plant seeds and floral buds," he states.

Wouter Dam's monochromatic sculptures seem to be inflated by the air that passes through them. Like a sail filled with wind, these hollow and open forms billow and swell. The ridges and curves that circumnavigate his work allude to hulls of seafaring ships, yet also refer to human form and classical vases.

Dam's work demonstrates a remarkable ability to combine sleek and undulating ceramic forms with soft and sensual color. He states that "the colors are bold, chosen to strongly enhance the shape." He fuses planes and bulges, creating a compact small sculpture that has equal interest in interior and exterior form. The work seems to spring from several sources: classical vase form, reductive abstraction, and the natural world. The result is a marvelous and minimal blend of these things, a simple and elegant architecture.

This will be Wouter Dam's fifth solo show in Los Angeles. The artist was born in 1957 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Department of Ceramics. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the world, including Germany, Japan, France and his native Holland. His work is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in Holland, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Musee des Arts Decoratif in Paris, and the Detroit Institute of Art.