Contemporary Research
Somchai Charoen
Somchai is a Thai artist as well as a teacher who is based in Sydney Australia. He is a ceramic artist who creates and uses molds to form repeating shapes throughout his art. He was born in Thailand in the 60's and moved to Australia in 2001. He went to 2 universities in Thailand for ceramics as well as marketing. Currently, he is self-employed and lectures at the National Arts School in Sydney. The reason that Somchai began to work with and make molds for his ceramics is because he wanted to have the opportunity to experiment with the stacking and and layering of the repeating shapes. I chose this artist because I was very intrigued by the different forms he was making. The shapes that he uses make the finished product look very clean and intentional. I wasn't super familiar with the technique of mold making for clay so I was super interested to see how he was able to create such similar and interesting forms.
https://artaxis.org/artist/somchai-charoen/
Adam Abel
He is a ceramic sculptor and also works with digital media. He was born in Poland in 1971 and went to two art schools, including the Academy of Fine Arts for his MFA and the Academy of Art and Design for his PhD. His goal for his art is to work with movement and space. He says, "allows me to revive seemingly still objects and build complex contexts integrating the picture, movement, and sound" I thought that his work looked super super interesting and very different than what you normally think of when you hear ceramics. I think that the intricate forms that he makes, really show movement and they make the viewer feel a specific way. I don't know for sure how he makes all of his sculptures, but for some, he uses a 3D clay printer which allows for the uniformity of each structure.