Oops!… I did it again
with Nicole Seisler / September 2022
About the Studio Session
That’s right, we’re not that innocent. We over-fire, under-fire, or never fire a kiln; we encourage clay to crack, warp, flop, shrink, melt, and succumb to gravity; ceramic is hammered, dropped, thrown, smashed, and exploded into the tiniest of pieces; clay is painted, glued, dissolved, woven, sewn, slipped, sucked, soaked, stacked, so and so, and such and such. In ceramics, there are many right ways to do the wrong things.
This Studio Session questions the idea and definition of a ‘mistake’ by opposing traditional tactics and embracing rule-breaking. Participants will discuss and materially explore the conceptual relevance of all states and bodies of clay, digital alternatives to the kiln, fragmentation and fortitude, and foundational actions as abstract metaphors instead of skill sets.
About the Lead Artist
Nicole Seisler is a Los Angeles-based ceramic artist who creates sculpture, installation, and public art that investigate time, materiality, process, and the overlapping roles of artist/viewer/participant/collaborator. Nicole has exhibited widely at museums ranging from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles. Her book Recipes for Conceptual Clay (in the time of covid-19) was published in 2020 and she had a 2021 solo exhibition at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA.
Nicole received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has taught ceramics for over a decade at institutions including SAIC, the University of Washington, UCLA, and she was the Lincoln Visiting Professor of Ceramics at Scripps College. Nicole is the Director of A-B Projects, where she has curated over 30 exhibitions and offers educational and community programming that reevaluates the trajectory of contemporary ceramics.
Logistics
This Studio Session took place September 2022.