October 14, 2018—November 30, 2018 | Opening Reception Saturday, October 20th, 12-3pm

James Harris Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition titled Sitting in the Dark by Los Angeles artist, Emily Sudd. She is a multi-disciplinary artist whose core practice focuses on the medium of ceramics. For this exhibition, her ceramic sculptures will be accompanied by a new group of wall mounted sculpture created out of stainless-steel jewelry chain. Both bodies of work engage in conversation with still life and narrative painting; Post-Minimalist sculpture; and hierarchies of materials and taste.  Sudd looks to analyze the spaces occupied by art and craft and the visual cues associated with these categories. 

In late 2017, Sudd began a new series of work titled “Motherhood Secrets" that establishes a metaphorical relationship with personal narrative, connecting with her recent experience as a new mother. She begins by throwing bottle forms on the potter’s wheel; then slices them in half and fills them with broken collectible kitsch ceramic objects, glazes, and glass before firing, grinding, and polishing the pieces to a finished state. The end result is an object that speaks to process, impermanence, and the discarded material culture of today. Though rooted in the tradition of the vessel, Sudd’s sculptures become a contemporary archeological interpretation akin to a geologic cross-section, revealing the intricate patterning of an amalgamation of material produced through compression, metamorphism, and vitrification. 

Download the press release