Strange Flowers

Artist Gary Brewer (born 1955)

Date2025

MediumCeramic

Dimensions11 x 11 x 8 in. (27.9 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of the artist

Object number2026.063

DescriptionArtist Statement – Ceramic Sculptures
I discover the shapes of my ceramic sculptures through touch. I do not preconceive a design for these works. Each ceramic piece is informed from deep somatic memories: the feel of the world around us and within. Touch and intuition guide my hands. These biomorphic forms are related to my paintings. Corals, lichens, and other life forms that have been the subject matter of my paintings for decades, have found their way into my sculptures. In my ceramics, I create forms that speak of the élan vital that animates life. The patterns and colors of my glazes echo those of the orchids and other biomorphic forms found in my paintings
The kiln firing of my ceramic pieces adds a volcanic, geological element to the process that is poetic; it is an expression of the ineffable unpredictability of life itself.

Excerpt from an Artillery Magazine review of my solo show “Voluptuous Charm of the Monumental Impulse, Wonzimer Gallery, Los Angeles

"While Brewer’s paintings are vividly floral in form, the ceramic sculptures resemble many natural life forms at once: parts of flowers, intimate explorations of pods and seeds ready to sprout, and mysterious sea creatures. In Morphic Resonance, a lapis lazuli blue is topped with a lush spill of white, as if snow or sea foam dusted this flora. Lyrical Geology is almost animal-like in form, recalling a sea horse, snail, or perhaps an interplanetary horse’s head. Earth Sea Memory is clearly a work taken from the sea, coral-like in its deep gem blue and soft salmon encrusted with patterned white. Whether created in oil or watercolor or in ceramic, Brewer’s work here is hypnotically lovely.
Genie Davis

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