Wayfinding at Craft Contemporary

The Craft Contemporary now hosts its third clay biennial—an exhibition which highlights California ceramic artists and celebrates the diversity of the medium. This iteration, titled Wayfinding, centers on our relationship to the earth, as well as a celebration of familial and cultural traditions. Lourdes Jiménez-Pulido pulls influences from his Navajo and Pueblo of Isleta heritage to create vessels patterned with swirling motifs; Charles Snowden’s surrealist figures take inspiration from ancient Mexican rituals; and Christina Margarita Erives’ delightful spreads of pan dulce and nopales visualize her family’s Mexican food traditions. 

Other artists look towards nature to inform their organic vessels. Sam Shoemaker integrates mycelium into his sculptural works while Courtney Mattison’s large-scale wall piece visualizes a vibrant and colorful coral reef that bleaches into a white porcelain at its edges. David Hicks makes steel armatures that are layered with various organic forms, each with its own textural glaze—inspired by nature and agriculture. Across the show, despite all the artists utilizing the same material, a diversity of approach and form is showcased and connection to place—whether familial or ecological—abounds.

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Photo: Wayfinding (installation view) (2023). Image courtesy of the artists and Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles. Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.