August 3, 2023 - April 14, 2024

Philadelphia artist Lauren Mabry creates ceramic sculpture that are three-dimensional paintings or as she calls them, “dimensional glaze paintings.” The earthenware clay is the substrate or the canvas, while the glazes, that transition from liquid states to solid forms, activate the work to create bold, dynamic compositions. Mabry has developed innovative, labor-intensive glazing techniques that are mesmerizing in their finished state.

Mabry’s dimensional glazed surfaces are achieved by filling “paste consistency glazes into the hollow cavities” of the clay and during the process of firing the glazes melt, dispense outward, colors conjoin, and eventually harden to forever retain their glassy, viscous fluidity. The Smithsonian American Art Museum described Mabry as having “…an irrepressible appetite for color…” and that “she creates joyful, lyrical glazes reminiscent of abstract painters like Emma Amos, Helen Frankenthaler, and Lee Krasner.”

Mabry likens her work as a metaphor of herself. She wrote, “Discussing my work in terms of how it exists, in an everlasting transitional state, describes me and my work accurately.” She is not only evolving the boundaries of ceramics, Mabry is also “carving a pathway for future craft artists where women are celebrated for their contributions that advance the field both technically and conceptually.”

Lauren Mabry’s work is represented by Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA, and Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia.

Visit ferrincontemporary.com and pentimenti.com