My ceramic paintings engage with 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.
Painted during daylight hours in layered compressions of time, matte pigment sets the ceramic surfaces aglow. Repetitive brushstrokes become a language of layered perceptions—notations of landscapes where dense flowers once covered fields and memories of colors that convey physical and spiritual realities.
A painting’s legibility shifts based on the quality of light. Illuminated and shadowed, their presence oscillates depending on the environment. The distinction between architecture and the landscape blurs—the pigmented forms becoming folded walls and curved fields. A layering of boundaries forms--the light and air surrounding a painting, the irregular edges of the ceramic tile, a threshold to enter into the interior.
Marla Sweitzer (b. Sarasota, FL) is an artist based in Fresno, CA. She received her MFA from the University of Tennessee and a BA from Centre College. 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).
@marlasweitzer
Painted during daylight hours in layered compressions of time, matte pigment sets the ceramic surfaces aglow. Repetitive brushstrokes become a language of layered perceptions—notations of landscapes where dense flowers once covered fields and memories of colors that convey physical and spiritual realities.
A painting’s legibility shifts based on the quality of light. Illuminated and shadowed, their presence oscillates depending on the environment. The distinction between architecture and the landscape blurs—the pigmented forms becoming folded walls and curved fields. A layering of boundaries forms--the light and air surrounding a painting, the irregular edges of the ceramic tile, a threshold to enter into the interior.
Marla Sweitzer (b. Sarasota, FL) is an artist based in Fresno, CA. She received her MFA from the University of Tennessee and a BA from Centre College. 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).
@marlasweitzer