Boat-shaped bowl 2000

This boat-shaped bowl was crafted by Maren Kloppmann; it’s ceramic, and it's so smooth. There's something about the way she coaxes color and form from clay that really gets me. The color is all earth tones – pink, tan, and a little bit of a golden-brown. It's like a desert sunset in a dish, or a kind of glazed peach. This is achieved through layering and firing, where the heat of the kiln transforms the surface into something else entirely. The colors aren't just on the surface; they feel like they're part of the material itself. Kloppman’s work reminds me a little of Eva Hesse, but with a sense of practical form – both artists are interested in pushing their material to its limit. Art should be a place to question and explore more than it should be about easy answers.