Lesley Katzen is a Seattle, Washington based ceramicist and sculptor who works in decorative and functional stoneware and figurative sculpture.
Group Exhibitions:
Collective Visions Gallery, 18th annual CVG Juried Show, Bremerton, Washington, January 2025
Siderail Collective, Seattle, Washington, November/December 2024
Ghost Gallery, Seattle, Washington, October 2024
Portals - Thurston County Museum of Fine Art, Olympia, Washington, April 26th-28th, 2024
Olympia Armory Intervention - Thurston County Museum of Fine Art, Olympia, Washington, July 8th-15th, 2023
Gallery Boom, Olympia, Washington, 2023 - June 2024
Artist’s Statement:
“et sum, quod digitis quinque legatur, onus” -- Thomas Browne, from 'Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial' 1658
I explore the well-tread theme of mortality in creating hand built jars in the style of mostly Western funerary art, Memento Mori ,and Vanitas.
I find ceramics a very concrete way of working through grief in a way that can be quite childlike.
I usually begin with a memory or a feeling that I can’t process - and so aim to make physical, to give it form and life and space, volume.
My process serves as a balm; I seek permanence, stability in the creation of a vessel - from a passive wet earth to a thing which I believe to be worthy of three dimensions.
This feels like real power in a world where we are often so powerless.
Available work
Urn - 2024
9x9x9 inches
Stoneware and commercial glazes
Purse - 2024
15x5.5 inches
Stoneware and commercial glazes
My Little Pony - 2024
10x8 inches
Stoneware and commercial glazes, gold luster
Urn - 2024
9x9x9 inches
Stoneware and commercial glazes
Wolf in sheep's clothing - 2024
8x8x2 inches
Stoneware and commercial glazes, gold luster
Mermaid - 2024
8x11x9 inches
Stoneware and commercial glazes, gold luster
Don't provoke the artist mug
these are made to order and are 40 bucks! Reach out to me at https://www.instagram.com/gothboxceramics/ I'm happy to customize for your favorite provokable artist.
Stoneware and commercial glazes,
(luster optional)