Absentee blogger alert! As many of you know I quit my full-time position in Early April and was thrilled to have more time for things like blogging and volunteering but, as often happens, the work I am doing on my own totally consumed my mind and my interest and the blog bore the brunt of it. A weekend at the lake reminded me to get back to it so today I blog 
First up on a long list of artists to share is Anna Maria Maiolino who does incredible installations with clay that Neil sent me images of from the Documenta Art Exhibition.
Anna is an Italian-born artists living and working in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She and her family emigrated to Venezuela in 1954 and moved to Brazil in 1960 at age 18 according to her bio. She has showed extensively in the US and in Latin America as well as other places around the world.
She often works with fresh clay, placing it in spaces (in coil for as above) or against walls. I love the idea that she doesn’t treat the clay into a “finished” form before it is displayed. Everyone always talks about things being finished but the process is the piece in some cases too.
I love many of her coil based works that are created into relatively flat pieces a la the above and below. They almost look like storms or jewelry items to me.
I love monochromatic works as well and it does seem to me that the majority of those come out of the clay and ceramic field for some reason.
The other thing that strikes me about raw clay is that it can change, dry out, crack, slump with gravity, etc. I wonder how long many of these installations stay in place for!
It’s funny to look at these bit of clay and think that they’re so smooth, so clean looking but really they will inevitably leave their mark on the surfaces on which they rest. Temporary or permanent?! That’s what I feel like they’re shouting at me!
Tags: 3D, brazil, ceramic, clay, installation art, Italy