Ceramics is a popular material for artists and sculptors ever since the ancient, as the plastic media is easy to work with and very malleable. The art and technology behind the use of ceramics have advanced with time, and one finds new influences and outcomes on the media. Established ceramic artists and the upcoming ones in the field create beautiful pieces of art and sculptors made of ceramic. The essay discusses one such famous sculptor who works with ceramic and his unique work.
John De Fazio
John de Fazio got his degree in ceramics from Philadelphia College of Art in 1981 and is famous for creating original art. He has spent most of his time working in New York in his clay studio in Manhattan and has worked for MTV headquarters. He has also designed art furniture and 3D animated toys. Different Museums such as Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Japan, Mint Museum of Craft and Design and Whitney Museum of American Art have exhibited the special and unique work of this amazing artist and sculptor. (Contemporary Monsters 2009).
John de Fazio is known to give his works a humorous and ironic look. The molded ready-mades and kitsch item are known to carry Pop culture with classic mythologies. His ceramics carry an outrageously flamboyant elements that play cohesive roles in a remarkable way. One finds abandoned aesthetics in those bright glazed colors of meticulously crafted objects of ceramics. His work is humorous but can often be often idiosyncratic and disturbing.
Dada Throne
One good example can be taken from his work –“Dada Throne” (Dada Throne 2016), where the white urinal is surrounded and covered by colorful ceramics. The sacred heart figurine of Jesus looks down at you while a Mickey Mouse gazes on him.
Source: "Dada Throne." California College of Arts. 2016. Web. 21 April 2016.
Other figures belong to pop-culture cluster around and are assorted together on the porcelain toilet. What makes–“Dada Throne,” special is that each figure, which also includes Bart Simpson, is bright and colorful and makes a sharp contrast with each other as well as the white toilet. The work demands attention not just excuse of those assorted figures together, but the association of Jesus and Mickey Mouse, and the use of toilet What makes the piece especially interesting is that it is an art that is meant to provoke and trigger some kind of reaction form the viewer. The viewers may like it or dislike the art work, but they cannot ignore it. Such works generate the emotional reaction that may be of amusement, anger or laughter. Artists such as John de Fazio make use of their art to question and harass the reality around us.
For any working artist, it is not only essential that he understand the use of his material, but also use his creation to reach the viewers, their minds, and heart, so as to evoke a reaction. –“Dada Throne” by John de Fazio is certainly successful in doing so, and the meticulously crafted objects blend the themes of Pop culture with classic mythologies. Many contemporary artists working in ceramics show a convincing physicality in their work. In the case of DeFazio, one finds him using throw away and discarded objects from pop culture, and use them with ceramics, thus changing their nature from transitory to permanency. The way he incorporates ceramic imitations of ceramic objects with tasteless and senseless knick-knacks demonstrate the notion of ceramics imitating itself. The clear kitsch statement is evident in his working style and ceramic works in a complex series of toilet and urinal sculptures.
Works Cited
"Contemporary Monsters." Nenadot. 2009. Web. 21 April 2016.
"Dada Throne." California College of Arts. 2016. Web. 21 April 2016.
