A solo exhibition of Francesca DiMattio's ornately deformed ceramic sculptures is on view at Salon 94 Bowery through May 7. DiMattio was featured in my Spring 2013 exhibition, Vessels, and these works are a continuation on a larger scale of the ideas she was exploring at the time – mixing and matching ceramic styles and traditions to achieve a hybrid of forms that finds a tense balance between beauty and the grotesque.
Installation view: Francesca DiMattio, Domestic Sculpture, Salon 94 Bowery. (Photo: Chris Murtha)
The press release describes the floral accents in one sculpture as “viral,” which is apt. Though the elements of each work are intricately and beautifully handcrafted, their application is often so excessive and their juxtapositions so jarring that the works can be unsettling and confrontational, especially considering their human scale.
Titled Domestic Sculpture, the works in the exhibition are hardly such. Instead, DiMattio’s sculptures offer an intense challenge to the decorative and functional conventions of ceramics.
Francesca DiMattio @ Salon 94
243 Bowery (Lower East Side)
www.salon94.com
Francesca DiMattio, Iznik, 2015, Glaze and luster on porcelain and stoneware, 88 x 29 x 29 inches; Domestic Sculpture, Salon 94 Bowery. (Photo: Chris Murtha)
"On View" posts highlight current exhibitions featuring exhibited artists.