ON VIEW
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS & SERIES
“Artists can actualize tangible objects which address the frustrations that we commonly feel. In ceramics, there is a long, historic tradition of political commentary. Themes that pique our visual outcries range from canaries in the coal mine to thinking about citizenship, American and world history, power, democracy and the value and vulnerability of freedom. Since the invention of the printing press, drawings of political satire and humor have been used to inform and get a message out to the population. 17th and 18th century British and French political satire, as well as comic art and prints by James Gilroy and William Hogarth changed thinking with brilliant wit equaling high art. Goya, Daumier, Picasso, the Gorilla Girls, and today’s New Yorker Magazine covers by Barry Blit come to mind as artists make political-commentary in reaction to their times.”
— Mara Superior
“They say that the news is the first draft of history. I love World history, American history, Art history, and the history of Ceramics. Know and understand history so that you don’t repeat mistakes = Sanity. I listen to the news in astonishment and wonder why people are allowing this to happen. Is anyone paying attention?
We are all so distracted with our own screen time. It is so easy to escape the chaos.
I have felt compelled to make this series about saving “American Democracy”~ A Porcelain Wake Up Call to my fellow Americans to Vote Blue in 2024. In my effort to understand what is going on and how this all could’ve come to be, I assembled a group of “commentary plates”, describing how and why the elements of the puzzle came together, surrounding the polarized “Red” and “Blue” map of the United States. I have put a heart and a four-leaf clover on the map, wishing my beloved country good luck and hoping for our better angels to do their best!”
“A forever optimist, I remain hopeful that the majority of Americans will be able to sort through the semantics, scrambling of the truth and reality and make common sense political decisions, spread the word, and use their privilege to vote
This piece is a visual representation of a divided democracy, literally being sewn back together with golden thread, an ancient Japanese Kintsugi Gold leaf repair, and porcelain buttons, in hopes of keeping it together.”
“The “Statue of Liberty”, (officially named, “Liberty Enlightening the World) is an inspiring globally recognized iconic monument symbolizing the United States. She arrived in the New York Harbor in 1886. A gift from France commemorating the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Lady Liberty symbolizes the ideals of liberty, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy, hope, and opportunity. She welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans traveling by ship.
Frederic Bartholdi sculpted the colossal statue based on the Greek goddess of liberty, Eleutheria, who had a temple on the Avertine Hill in Rome since c. 238 B.C.
My depiction of Lady Liberty who has been hit by lightning, thousands of times is ready to go back to her beloved homeland, La Belle, France!”
“Among the numerous poignant wild salmon platters I’ve crafted over the years, this particular one connects to a moving narrative and marks my final creation in this vein. The catalyst for its significance stems from a startling NPR radio report I heard in November of 2023, revealing the alarming disappearance of Pacific Northwestern Salmon. The heart-wrenching cries of Alaskan fishermen, whose families have depended on these waters for generations, echoed through the broadcast. Once boasting a fishing season spanning around six weeks, it’s now dwindled to as brief as 10 days. The rapid warming of the waters presents an existential threat to salmon, a keystone species crucial for sustaining countless ecosystems and communities.“
2020/USA/Vote/America
Who is in Charge, America?
Presidential Cups
Mara Superior’s passion for Art History and the History of the Decorative Arts has informed her work throughout her career. She seeks to create beauty through the reinterpretation of historical inspirations synthesized with her own visual vocabulary and contemporary views. The idiosyncratic visual language that Superior has been cultivating over decades is largely rooted in porcelain but encompasses painting, art history, ceramic history, and contemporary art. Works in this series juxtapose art historical references beginning with the Egyptians through 17th-century European ceramics from a contemporary viewpoint. The resulting objects are rooted in the historical continuum.
The Nymph of Spring (After Lucas Cranach)
Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)
Birth of Venus (After Sandro Botticelli)
“My piece in Ferrin Contemporary’s exhibition Nature/Nurture, Only One Planet Earth, is a commentary on the current predicament mankind is facing — Climate Change — and what to do about it. I can only hope that this universally shared crisis will bring out the best in us and bring humanity together to find remedies.”
— Mara Superior, 2020
Only One Planet Earth
Le Do Do
Polar Distress
The Ice is Melting, (Five-finger Vase)
Mara Superior’s House & Garden Series highlights the landscape, architecture, and lifestyle of New England. The artworks display the depth of influence that living in the area has had on the artist’s aesthetic, and range from teapots, to relief tiles and platters.
Our House
Summer House (June Platter)
Watching the Sea (A Dream Platter)
My Winter House (A Dream House)
A Dream House Dreaming
Largest Heart Platter
My Lobster
In Superior’s Blue Series, she highlights the cobalt blue and white ceramic tradition that began in China and was the inspiration and foundation of porcelain work in Europe and across the globe. Some of her Blue Series pieces use the classic visual themes and icons of early Chinese blue and white export porcelain, such as waterscapes, pagodas, mountains, and bridges. In other pieces, she uses the cobalt blue and white palette to paint western scenes similar to those found in her multicolored work. Every time she uses cobalt blue, she connects a dot back to the Chinese blue and white tradition and positions herself as a continuation of that tradition in the history of porcelain.
Let the Sun Shine on Moi
MARA SUPERIOR
ABOUT
American, b. 1951, New York, NY
lives and works in Williamsburg, MA
Mara Superior is an American visual artist who works in porcelain. Her ceramic high relief platters and sculptural objects reflect the artist’s passion for art history and the decorative arts, and her painterly motifs range from the pleasures of the domestic to serious political and environmental issues as points of departure to comment on contemporary culture and its relationship to history. Superior has received numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship, the prestigious Guldaggergård Residency in Denmark, and numerous individual artist grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Superior studied at the Pratt Institute and Hartford Art School, completing her BFA in painting from the University of Connecticut followed by a MAT in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.
Portrait of the Artist with ”The Nymph of Spring (After Lucas Cranach)”, 2021,
high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides and underglazes, gold leaf, epoxy, digital print, 12.5 x 18.5 x 1.5″.
Photo by John Polak Photography
STATEMENTS FROM THE ARTIST
ON ART HISTORY
“My passion for Art History and the History of the Decorative Arts has informed my work throughout my career. I seek to create beauty through the reinterpretation of historical inspirations synthesized with my own visual vocabulary and contemporary views. The resulting objects are rooted in the historical continuum.”
ON HER PAINTING BACKGROUND
ON PORCELAIN
ON HER AESTHETIC
ON HER CAREER
Mara Superior, ”The Nymph of Spring (After Lucas Cranach)”, 2021, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides and underglazes, gold leaf, epoxy, digital print, 12.5 x 18.5 x 1.5″.
Mara Superior: Chronicling our Collective Hopes
By Lauren Levato Coyne, MFA, artist & writer
Superior’s works often reference the Renaissance, though she herself is akin to a medieval chronicler, a documentarian using stylized drawings (or sculptures in Superior’s case) and fanciful flourishes with a personalized spin to relay current events in an approachable manner. Superior’s high-relief porcelain works directly engage with our current socio-political moments while retaining hope for our collective future. Her whimsical storytelling pulls the threads of shared cultural histories in an attempt to activate our better angels.”
CLICK TO VIEW HEY! CERAMIQUE.S CATALOG, FEATURING THE FULL ARTICLE
Mara Superior, “Let the Sun Shine on Moi”, 2022, English porcelain, cobalt oxide, gold luster, glaze, 11 x 14.25 x .5″
ON HER BLUE SERIES
In Superior’s Blue Series, she highlights the cobalt blue and white ceramic tradition that began in China and was the inspiration and foundation of porcelain work in Europe and across the globe. Some of her Blue Series pieces use the classic visual themes and icons of early Chinese blue and white export porcelain, such as waterscapes, pagodas, mountains, and bridges. In other pieces, she uses the cobalt blue and white palette to paint western scenes similar to those found in her multicolored work. Every time she uses cobalt blue, she connects a dot back to the Chinese blue and white tradition and positions herself as a continuation of that tradition in the history of porcelain.
— Mara Superior
Mara Superior, “2020/USA/Vote/America”, 2019, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, ceramic decals, gold leaf, 13 x 16.25 x 2″.
ON HER POLITICAL & ENVIRONMENTAL SERIES
Artists can actualize tangible objects which address the frustrations that we commonly feel. In ceramics, there is a long, historic tradition of political commentary. Themes that pique our visual outcries range from canaries in the coal mine to thinking about citizenship, American and world history, power, democracy and the value and vulnerability of freedom. Since the invention of the printing press, drawings of political satire and humor have been used to inform and get a message out to the population. 17th and 18th century British and French political satire, as well as comic art and prints by James Gilroy and William Hogarth changed thinking with brilliant wit equaling high art. Goya, Daumier, Picasso, the Gorilla Girls, and today’s New Yorker Magazine covers by Barry Blit come to mind as artists make political-commentary in reaction to their times.
Mara Superior, “Only One Planet Earth”, 2019, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, gold leaf, 16 x 16 x 1.5”.
ON NATURE/NURTURE
“I was nurtured and encouraged to develop my imagination by my family and art teachers all the way through graduate school. Further enrichment came by way of my extraordinary good fortune to have been married to Roy Superior, a wonderful Artist and Professor of Art.
Over the course of my career, ceramics, art schools, museum curators and society have evolved to become more inclusive. Barriers have disintegrated, and currently, it feels as if ceramics is female-empowered given that so many of the magazine editors, gallerists and many curators are women.
For my entire professional career, I have been blessed to have only one brilliant and visionary female art dealer, Leslie Ferrin, of Ferrin Contemporary. Leslie has always encouraged my best work, offered me opportunities, and given me valued professional advice.
The choices that I employ regarding my own work for materials, content, palette and ornament might, by historical standards, be considered feminine work by nature. That label has never been a hindrance to me. I have had a very privileged life and career as an artist and am grateful for it all.
My piece in Ferrin Contemporary’s exhibition Nature/Nurture, Only One Planet Earth, is a commentary on the current predicament mankind is facing — Climate Change — and what to do about it. I can only hope that this universally shared crisis will bring out the best in us and bring humanity together to find remedies.”
Mara Superior, “Mother Nature Says, ‘Wake Up'” 2010, porcelain, glaze, wood, pearls, gold leaf, 17 x 22 x 2″.
DIRECTOR NOTES ON MARA SUPERIOR
In the works presented in Nature/Nurture, Superior’s political views are expressed front and center. The large-scale porcelains use the format of Renaissance-era storytelling platters with wide-rimmed borders functioning as frames. Carefully placed medallions and miniature objects in relief are emblazoned with messages delivered in delicately, hand-painted, calligraphic, heavily-laden serif fonts. Whether she is channeling mother nature or calling on higher powers to impact the coming election, Superior speaks loudly in large, all caps type, using the language of decorative arts to shout her beliefs in beauty and humanity’s inherent goodness.
Originally a New Yorker, Mara has been living and working in Western Massachusetts since the 70’s. Her life and work are an ode to Western culture. While embracing traditional values of home and beauty, her work is from a modern perspective with a feminist nod to sensuality and pleasure. Whenever possible, she spends leisure time wandering the museums of the world– in person. But, now, quarantined at home, she is touring these museums virtually, attending online classes, watching zoom lectures, and enjoying her vast library of gorgeous art books. She shares these moments along with the slow progress of painting her next work All American on her Instagram feed.
Superior met Leslie Ferrin at the beginning of her career. Both were in school, Mara at UMASS in the MAT program, Leslie at Hampshire College. Mara’s husband, Roy Superior, was Ferrin’s professor. They shared studios as artists, founding Pinch Pottery in Northampton, followed by East Street Clay Studios (Hadley, MA). Their intertwined, four-decade-long careers have weathered many changes and challenges over 40 years. Roy passed away in 2013, truly a renaissance man, an artist, sculptor, musician and beloved professor for 40 years spending 16 years at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Mara continues to live in the New England farmhouse they slowly renovated together, surrounded by the furniture he built to hold her works, his drawings, their library and his “wunderkammer” collections. The studio filled with hand made, hand tools, is still intact.
Superior’s artwork features ideas gleaned from research and travel, uniting all her interests in thematic approaches to specific content. Like her exuberant country garden, her work is always a beautiful mix of heirlooms and hybrids, free-ranging and grafts that come from strong rootstock. Her mashup mix of source material is delivered as stylized interpretations through images and didactic text. Using a combination of folk traditions, references to the classics of Western art, she infuses not so veiled socio-political messages from a contemporary perspective. Her deep love of ancient Greek, Roman, Asian antiquities, European and Early American pottery and ceramics – these objects become the subject matter of collection platters that feature miniature versions of her coveted favorites.
ON VIEW & UPCOMING
Mara Superior, “Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)”, 2023, high-fired English porcelain, painted with ceramic underglazes, ground oxides, Cornwallstone glaze, wood, gold, leaf, bone and ink, 19 x 14.5 x 6.5″, John Polak Photography
Mara Superior, “Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)”, 2023, high-fired English porcelain, painted with ceramic underglazes, ground oxides, Cornwallstone glaze, wood, gold, leaf, bone and ink, 19 x 14.5 x 6.5″, John Polak Photography
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior Installation, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior Installation, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
Mara Superior, “Only One Planet Earth”, 2019, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, gold leaf, 16 x 16 x 1.5”.
Mara Superior, ”Birth of Venus (After Sandro Botticelli)’, 2021, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides and underglazes, gold leaf, epoxy, digital print, 17.5” x 14”x 2”.
FEATURED PAST EXHIBITIONS
Our America/Whose America? Installation, 2022
Ferrin Contemporary “Our America/Whose America?” Dining Room Installation at the Wickham House, Richmond, VA, 2024
Mara Superior’s work displayed in the Dining Room of the Wickham House at the Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
Ferrin Contemporary “Our America/Whose America?” Dining Room Installation at the Wickham House, Richmond, VA, 2024
Selected classic works presented directly from the artists’ archives or offered by private collectors, illustrating career highlights both in the gallery and online. The exhibition asks us, the artists, and the collectors to reflect on the road we’ve taken and invites the public to join the dialog while we speculate about the future.
Mara Superior, “The Ice is Melting (Five-finger Vase)”, 2022, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, 9.25 x 9 x 5.25″.
Mara Superior, “Let the Sun Shine on Moi”, 2023, English porcelain, cobalt oxide, 24kt gold leaf, glaze, 11 x 14.25 x .5”.
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.
Featuring Works from the Environmental Series
Mara Superior, “Only One Planet Earth”, 2019, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, gold leaf, 16 x 16 x 1.5”.
“Nature/Nurture” Installation View, Crystal Morey, Mara Superior, Kardi Parnamets, 2020.
‘Nature/Nurture’, Installation view, 2020.
Mara Superior, ‘LeDoDo’ 2010, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, 16 x 16 x 2″.
CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS
Our America/Whose America?
Ferrin Contemporary at The Wickham House
The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
February 20 – April 21, 2024
HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S
Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre | Paris, France
September 20, 2023 – August 14, 2024
Featuring Chris Antemann, Crystal Morey, & Mara Superior
ESPRITS LIBRES | La Fondation d’Enterprise Bernardaud
La Fondation d’Enterprise Bernardaud | Limoges, France
June 17, 2022 – April 1, 2023
COLLECTION FOCUS: Mara Superior at the Racine Art Museum
Racine Art Museum | Racine, WI
August 18, 2021 – January 15, 2022
- 2022 INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART FAIR (ICAF)
- COLLECTION FOCUS: Mara Superior at the Racine Art Museum
- COOL CLAY: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics | Crocker Art Museum
- TENDING THE FIRES: Recent Acquisitions in Clay | Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
- FLORA/FAUNA | Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
- REVIVE, REMIX, RESPOND
- THE WOMEN
- ALICE IN WONDERLAND
- NEW YORK CERAMICS & GLASS FAIR 2017
- RE—Reanimate, Repair, Mend and Meld
- MENDED WAYS | The Art of Inventive Repair
- NCECA 2015 Conference: “Lively Experiments”
- NEW YORK CERAMICS & GLASS FAIR 2015
NEWS
MARA SUPERIOR | Notes on Political & Environmental Series
Project Art & ACC Lunch | Open during the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour
MUSEUM NEWS | HEY! Ceramique.s – Paris, France | Chris Antemann, Crystal Morey, Mara Superior
ARE WE THERE YET? Featured in the Berkshire Eagle
Mara Superior in PEOPLE’S CHOICE at the Bennington Museum
NATURE OF NURTURING | Notes from Director, Leslie Ferrin
Ferrin Contemporary featured on Everson Museum’s Online Class and Studio Tour
5 Must-See Ceramics Shows You Can View Online, Artsy, April 29, 2020
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID | Commemorating Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary
MUSEUM NEWS | Mara Superior
Galleries closed due to COVID-19, but Art must go on!, Beautiful Bizarre, March 17, 2020
NATURE/NURTURE: Female ceramists reflect on experiences that shaped them, The Berkshire Eagle, March 13, 2020
NATURE/NURTURE on WAMC, March 11, 2020
Ferrin Contemporary featured in The Rogovoy Report
Mara Superior On View at the Peabody Essex Museum of Art in Salem, MA
Mara Superior in “ART FOR DARTMOUTH: CELEBRATING THE 250TH”, August 31, 2019 – January 12, 2020.
DONALD CLARK: Selections from his Collection On View
Summer Events at Ferrin Contemporary & Project Art 2018
Revive, Remix, Respond at The Frick Pittsburgh
PUBLICATIONS
- Released September 15, 2023
- Edited by Anne Richard Bilingual (French / English)
- 250 pages
- Shaped cover 28 x 24.5 cm
- Published by HEY! PUBLISHING
Long considered a minor art because of its particular status at the crossroads of art and craftsmanship, ceramics has emancipated itself artistically by making precisely this hybrid position the basis of its renewal. The truly alchemical dimension of the fire arts lends itself wonderfully to blurring and crossing boundaries.
HEY! CÉRAMIQUES Catalog Cover “HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S” Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024.
Mara Superior, ”The Nymph of Spring (After Lucas Cranach)”, 2021, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides and underglazes, gold leaf, epoxy, digital print, 12.5 x 18.5 x 1.5″.
Mara Superior: Chronicling our Collective Hopes
By Lauren Levato Coyne, MFA, artist & writer
Superior’s works often reference the Renaissance, though she herself is akin to a medieval chronicler, a documentarian using stylized drawings (or sculptures in Superior’s case) and fanciful flourishes with a personalized spin to relay current events in an approachable manner. Superior’s high-relief porcelain works directly engage with our current socio-political moments while retaining hope for our collective future. Her whimsical storytelling pulls the threads of shared cultural histories in an attempt to activate our better angels.”
CLICK TO VIEW HEY! CERAMIQUE.S CATALOG, FEATURING THE FULL ARTICLE
Collection Focus: Mara Superior at RAM
Blending past and present-day concerns, notions of Americana, and personal experience, Mara Superior playfully both challenges and adds to a history of porcelain decorative objects and tableware. With a singular aesthetic that feels reverent yet unique, Superior builds narratives that unfold through images, words, and form.
Comprised entirely of work from RAM’s collection that span over three decades, this exhibition showcases several of the artist’s core interests. They emphasize Superior’s personal history—her connection to art and ceramic history, her appreciation for “home” and ideas about the domestic, and her love of travel. While these are not the only topics she addresses in her work, they are foundational ones and provide a layered and nuanced accounting of the artist’s approach to working with porcelain. Engaging scenes play out across a range of objects, including platters, teapots, vessels, and a collaborative piece with the artist’s late husband, sculptor and furniture maker, Roy Superior.
Significantly, this exhibition debuts a multi-piece gift from the Kohler Foundation, Inc., that catapults RAM’s holdings of work by Superior from two pieces, already gifted by other donors, to 33. In doing so, this gift establishes several milestones for Superior at RAM—making her an archive artist as well as the most collected female ceramic artist and the second most collected ceramic artist regardless of gender.
Preview the Exhibition Catalog • HERE •
A Conversation with Mara Superior and Bruce W. Pepich, Unabridged (PDF)
Further information about the artist:
Oral History Interview with Mara Superior—Archives of American Art
Artist Spotlight from a 2018 Exhibition at The Frick Pittsburgh
Collection Focus: Mara Superior at RAM
Mara Superior: A Retrospective
Published in 2006 by New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Forward by Douglas Hyland, Director, New Britain Museum of American Art.
Essay by Bruce W. Pepich, Executive Director and Curator of Collection, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI.
32-page, full-color exhibition catalog
Mara Superior: A Retrospective
413: Pioneering Western Massachusetts
This catalog accompanies the exhibition “413: Pioneering Western Massachusetts” on view at Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, August 20 – November 27, 2016. The exhibition and catalog explore the works and careers of five makers who have been responsible for the development of Western Massachusetts’s internationally renowned craft community: Josh Simpson (glass), Mark Shapiro (ceramics), Silas Kopf (woodworking), JoAnn Kelly Catsos (baskets), and Mara Superior (ceramics). The creative community and rural environment of Western Massachusetts offers opportunities for makers that are unlike those found anywhere else, and those featured in (413) have played a significant role in the region’s creative development. The bucolic setting and open creative community offer a distinct sense of place that is evident in their work.
Mara Superior, “La Swan”, 2015, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, 13.5 x 18.5 x 1.5″.
VIDEOS FEATURING MARA SUPERIOR
Virtual exhibition tour with RAM Executive Director and Curator of Collections Bruce W. Pepich and RAM Curator of Exhibitions Lena Vigna
Video produced by Matt Binetti, Reservoir Video Co.
Join Racine Art Museum’s (RAM’s) Executive Director and Curator of Collections Bruce W. Pepich as well as Curator of Exhibitions Lena Vigna for a 14-minute virtual tour of the exhibition, Collection Focus: Mara Superior
For more about Superior and the exhibition at RAM, please visit: RAM Art: Mara Superior
Conversation with Jamie Franklin, curator at the Bennington Museum of Art continues his online series, “Chats with Jamie” with Ferrin Contemporary artist MARA SUPERIOR to discuss her dynamic practice and new works while in quarantine.
For more about Superior and the exhibition at Bennington Museum of Art, please visit: Bennington Museum
INQUIRE
Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.
If interested in lists of all works and series: Send us a message
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