ExhibitionThe Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection of Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture

Exhibition Overview

Clay often connotes function and utility — think crockery, teapots and bricks. The thirty-five artists showing over 100 artworks in The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection of Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, use clay to build heroic figures, mimic riveted steel, and even riff on a classic tea set that’s anything but functional. The effects are as different as Judy Fox’s unnervingly lifelike figures and Edward Eberle’s tiny graphic porcelain vessels. Life and death, horror and humor, growth and decay, take forms as diverse as humanity itself.

IMAGE: Lee Stoliar, Completer, 1988, waxed terra-cotta and wood, 9 1/4 x 21 x 6 in. Courtesy Stephen and Pamela Hootkin

View the exhibition catalog.