Lauren Mabry, Artist Portrait in her studio, 2022. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

LAUREN MABRY

ARTWORK

Scrapyard No. 1

Scrapyard No. 2

Scrapyard No. 4

Glazeflow Cylinder

Green Shade No. 3

Double Lavender

Double White

Molten Cloud

Pink No. 5

LAUREN MABRY


ABOUT


American, b. 1985, Cincinnati, OH
lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

Lauren Mabry is recognized internationally for her bold, dynamic glazes and inventive use of material, color, and form. Her ceramic vessels, objects, and dimensional paintings embrace experimentation as a way to question the boundary between abstract painting, minimalist sculpture, and process art.

Mabry is the recipient of individual grants from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Independence Foundation, and the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts  Emerging Artist Award, and she has worked at the Jingdezhen International Studio in China and the Gaya Ceramic Art Center in Bali, Indonesia.

Mabry has shown in numerous institutions including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, (Omaha, NE), Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA) and Milwaukee Art Museum, (Milwaukee, WI), and her work is included in the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, (Kansas City, MO), Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, (Sedalia, MO), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, (Overland Park, KS), and Sheldon Museum of Art, (Lincoln, NE).

In 2007, Mabry completed her BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, and she received her MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2012. Mabry is represented by Pentimenti, (Philadelphia, PA), and Ferrin Contemporary.

Lauren Mabry, Artist Portrait

ON HER WORK

I make ceramic vessels, objects, and dimensional paintings by combining traditional and experimental methods with clay and glaze. I investigate materiality though experimentation that is driven by my fascination with color, visual movement, and the transformative nature of ceramics. Primarily my work communicates directly, through its formal and aesthetic qualities, but it may also be understood in relationship to abstract painting, minimal work, and Process Art. Surface is often the focal point of my work, and therefore the forms I make are a reaction to how a glaze performs. My goal is to create dynamic compositions that push the boundaries of how these materials are perceived. Because I strive to keep my work as playful as it is scientific, the things I make exist where haphazard sketching meets the accuracy of chemistry. The rich, flowing glazes create hypnotic tones, textures, and forms which aim to please and bewilder.

Lauren Mabry, Glazescape 20.04, 2020 (detail)

ON HER PROCESS

My work is predicated on a research-driven practice that investigates the history of color theory and material experimentation: to this end, I treat the vessel as a canvas, while accounting for the painful and difficult hierarchies that have kept both women artists and ceramics as a medium historically excluded from the realm of painting and sculpture. Ceramics has long been mistreated as a low art form, and it is my goal to elevate its painterly qualities through a deep and ongoing exploration of surface treatments through pigmentation, glaze chemistry, an understanding of structure and substrates, including underglazing, monoprint transfer, and glaze application, buttressed by a daily drawing practice in which mark making finds its way onto the layers and embedded into the surfaces of my vessels and sculptural constructions. My goal is to create dynamic compositions that push the boundaries of how ceramic materials have been historically perceived. The rich, flowing glazes create hypnotic tones, textures, and forms, and I aim to change the nature of the technical questions craftspeople often get: “how did you do that?” to instead “why did you do that?”

The German-born abstract painter Hans Hofmann utilized “push pull” as a phrase to describe intersecting and overlapping surfaces and geometries upon his own canvases as a means of creating pictorial space, full of expanding and contracting forces. I am particularly taken with the investigates of materiality though historical abstract expressionism like Helen Frankenthaler as well as the color theory that entered American art schools through Josef Albers and other Bauhaus-trained artists.  However, I am conscious of the need to interrogate the historical absences of ceramics from these modes of expression. My experimentation is driven by my fascination with color, visual movement, and the transformative nature of ceramics. Primarily, my work communicates directly through its formal and aesthetic qualities by utilizing processes that exploit the intrinsic qualities of ceramic materials. The results are expressive, bold, and often dichotomous: haphazard yet highly calculated.

FEATURED

ARTWORKS & INSTALLATIONS

CYLINDERS


Glaze Flow Cylinder

Glaze Flow Cylinder No. 2

SPILLING FORMS


Spilling Forms

Stacked Compositions

INSTALLATIONS


RECENT & PAST EXHIBITIONS

50 Years in the Making: Alumni Exhibition at The Clay Studio, June 13th – September 1st, 2024, featuring Sergei Isupov, Paul Scott, and Lauren Mabry

50 Years in The Making: Alumni Exhibition

2024 | The Clay Studio | Philadelphia, PA

featuring work by Paul Scott, Sergei Isupov, and Lauren Mabry

This Alumni Exhibition showcases artwork to reflect the current practice of the over 150 artist who have participated in The Clay Studio’s Resident Artist Program, Guest Artist Program, and Associate Artist Program over the 50 years since its founding.

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Are We There Yet? 2023, Chris Antemann, Sergei Isupov, Lauren Mabry

Chris Antemann, Sergei Isupov, Lauren Mabry in “Are We There Yet?” 2023, installation at Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA

ARE WE THERE YET?

2023 | Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA

ARE WE THERE YET? is a celebration of Ferrin Contemporary’s 40+ years as leaders in the field of modern and contemporary ceramics.

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Lauren Mabry, “Doorway No3”, 2021, detail

LAUREN MABRY: NEW WORK

2022 | Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA

Surface is often the focal point of my work, and therefore the forms I make are a reaction to how a glaze performs. My goal is to create dynamic compositions that push the boundaries of how these materials are perceived. Because I strive to keep my work as playful as it is scientific, the things I make exist where haphazard sketching meets the accuracy of chemistry.

— Lauren Mabry

Lauren Mabry, “Glazescape (Double White)”, 2021, and “Glazescape (Molten Cloud)”, 2022. installation at Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art. Photograph by Joel Tsui, courtesy of Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art.

A FRESH GREETING IS HEARD

July 15 to September 18, 2022 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design | Portland, ME

This exhibition highlights four artists who navigate realms between abstraction and figuration to tease out the disquiet and enchantment found in wild spaces, the magic of transformation, the tendency to see meaningful imagery in ambiguous forms, and the agency of natural places as vibrant actors in our collective imagination. Works in painting, ceramics and video by Leon Benn, Lauren Mabry, Allison Schulnik, and Hannah Secord Wade on view.
– Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design

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Ferrin Contemporary, LAUREN MABRY: Fused, 2019, Installation View

LAUREN MABRY: FUSED

2019 | Solo Exhibition | Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA

 Series of ‘dimensional paintings’ that use color, form and an exuberant sense of play to explore the transformative nature of clay.

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Lauren Mabry, “Glaze Flow Blocks 20.02”, 2020

NATURE/NURTURE

Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary (North Adams, MA) | 2020 & 2021
Virtual Conference at
NCECA Rivers, Reflections, and Reinvention | 2021

Group exhibition of twelve contemporary female artists invited to explore the influence of gender and its impact on their practice.

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ON NATURE/NURTURE

As a young woman, I was emboldened to embrace my natural strengths – an independent, competitive spirit, believing that I could achieve whatever I set out to do. Born with a gift and a drive, I have made it this far because I have been nurtured by many strong women in my life, starting with my mother who always encouraged me to follow my passion for art. Along the way, my female educators never hesitated to push me even when I was struggling – Jane Shellenbarger, Cary Esser, Sanam Emami, Gail Kendall, and Margaret Bohls. My career has been continuously shaped by females, gallerists, and curators like Leslie Ferrin and Catherine Futter, who create exhibition opportunities, connections, and help put my work in important collections. Of equal importance are the many women artists who, although I haven’t known personally, have influenced my voice a great deal – Betty Woodman, Viola Frey, Karen Massaro, Lynda Benglis and many more. I am so grateful to have all of these women who have led by setting the example.

FC Artist News | LAUREN MABRY | New Works in Nature/Nurture | Cylinders & Sculptures

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Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.

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