R. A. Pesce

Hudson-based ceramic artist R.A. Pesce works in two distinct wheel thrown and altered styles, what Pesce has aptly named his "Brutalist" and "Elemental" forms. Pesce’s brutalist vessels are angular and geometric, seeming to fuse the abstraction of sculptors such as Henri Laurens or Constantin Brancusi with a deep architectural sensibility. Each piece is, at its starting point, a simple vessel, and by applying brutalism-inspired motifs Pesce creates nuance and structural interest.

These brutalist works stand in contrast to his elemental vessels, which capture in clay the flowing and undulating patterns found in such natural phenomena as windswept sand dunes, tornadoes, or whirlpools. These two styles represent opposite but in many ways complementary instincts in Pesce: to explore the complexity and intricacy found in nature AND to represent an idea in the simplest most essential way.