In my ceramic paintings I explore how light illuminates the subtleties of color and surface. I press clay together, piece by piece, in a process of unfolding. Embracing the organic imperfections and poetic irregularities of clay, edges warp and sometimes crack. Oil paint sets the ceramic surfaces aglow in undulating fields of matte pigment. Painted in daylight hours in layered compressions of time, each painting becomes a distillation of landscapes, evoking memories of color and qualities of light. 

Marla Sweitzer (b. 1989 Sarasota, FL) is an artist based in Fresno, CA. She received her MFA from the University of Tennessee and a BA from Centre College. Her visual language is rooted in an early engagement with landscape painting. Each ceramic painting acts as a walled form on which light illuminates the subtleties of color and surface — blurring the distinction between architecture and landscape. Recent solo exhibitions include Warping the Distances, Art Space Gallery (Fresno), Sight Lines, Housewright Gallery (Seattle) and ground matter, Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture (Knoxville). Recent group exhibitions include Innocent Pleasures Suit Me, Warbling Collective (London) and Promises, Jason McCoy Gallery (NYC). 

masweitzer [at] gmail [dot] com
@marlasweitzer