Sexy? Creepy? Some uncomfortable mixture of both? Sculptor and pottery magician Jessica Stoller explores the relationship between the two in her latest collection Spoil, a mass of grotesque and unpalatable contradictions coated in a sickly sweet glaze, realised with head-scratchingly brilliant technique.
Piled high like an over-indulgent plateful of dessert, Stoller’s busts and tableaux are dripping and melting with layers of intricate porcelain. The astonishing effect is created by coating fabric with liquid clay and then firing in multiple stages to burn off the material, leaving the folds of delicate pottery intact. Female symbolism and bodily subversion are all on the table in Spoil, but this recipe also contains a healthy dollop of humour in there with the gender commentary. Macabre iconography, gluttony and some unexpected piercings are also in the mix, and the dark themes jar excitingly with the frilly Rococo delivery. New York’s PPOW is hosting Spoil; catch it at the Chelsea gallery until 8 February.
Untitled (venus) 2013
porcelain, china paint, and luster
11 ½ x 8 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the artist and
P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
Untitled (dance macabre) 2013
porcelain, china paint, and luster
8 x 7 ½ x 7 inches
Courtesy of the artist and
P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
Untitled (frill) 2013
porcelain, china paint, and luster
13 x 6 ½ x 6 ½ inches
Courtesy of the artist and
P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
Untitled (lick) 2013
porcelain, china paint, and luster
8 ½ x 9 ½ x 9 ½ inches
Courtesy of the artist and
P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
Untitled (spread) 2013
6 x 7 ½ x 7 inches
porcelain, china paint, and luster
Courtesy of the artist and
P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
Untitled (balance) 2013
porcelain, china paint, and luster
12 x 11 ½ x 6 ½ inches
Courtesy of the artist and
P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
