Artist: Ani Kasten

Investigating the materiality of the clay is the foundation and focal point for all of my sculptural vessels. I create wheel-thrown and hand-built forms in families, and these sculptural groupings explore the meeting point between natural and man-made worlds. The vessels take their influence from plants, water, rocks and clay, as well as from architecture, industry and machinery. The forms integrate both of these sensibilities into a composed landscape, such as a stand of bamboo-like, truncated cylinders, perforated with small windows to look like corroded skyscrapers, or a simple, pure form such as a smooth sphere, marked on its surface with an off-center, wandering imprint, like bird tracks in the sand. The pieces are often truncated, off-center, weathered and perforated, combining natural movement and an apparent state of organic deterioration that invokes the cycle of life, death, decay. They investigate the nature of change, the compiling of memory, and a feeling of profound loss– the recognition of temporal beauty bound inextricably with grief. The pieces are like remnants, a landscape of objects that remain after some kind of significant change, grave markers, or organic matter that has survived a great fire. As creative expressions of form, movement and texture, my work is infused with a modern, minimal aesthetic while at the same time reminding one of a natural or ancient object exposed to the rigors of time. As does nature, my ceramics often incorporate repeated markings and patterns, and explore asymmetry while retaining balance, lightness, and quietude of form.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2013
St. Croix Pottery Tour, St. Croix, MN (May)
Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, D.C. (April)
Solo Exhibition, Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (March)
American Craft Council Craft Show, Baltimore, MD (February)
2012
Washington Craft Show, Washington, D.C. (November)
Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Philadelphia, PA (November)
Hickock Cole Art Night, Hickock Cole Architecture, Washington, D.C (September)
Lacoste Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Concord, MA (September)
Tomio Koyama Gallery, ‘Function/Dysfunction, Kyoto, Japan
The Clay Studio, Solo Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA
Blue Spiral Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Asheville, NC
2011
Heath Ceramics L.A., Solo Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
Snyderman-Works Gallery, Three Shades of White, Philadelphia, PA
Crimson Laurel Gallery, Containment, Bakersville, NC
Lacoste Gallery, SOFA New York, New York, NY,
Lacoste Gallery, The Elusive Tea Bowl, Concord, MA
Lacoste Gallery, New Work, Concord, MA
Blue Spiral Gallery, Emerging Clay, Asheville, NC
2010
Philadelphia Museum Craft Show, Philadelphia, PA
Lacoste Gallery, SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
Lacoste Gallery, Art in the Berkshires, Stockbridge, MA
Gallery 555, Group Exhibition, Washington D.C.
The Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, D.C.
Lacoste Gallery Solo at SOFA, New York, NY
Lacoste Gallery, Fault Lines, Solo Exhibition, Concord, MA
Wood Turning Center, Magical Realism/ Material Illusions, Phildelphia, PA
2009
Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Philadelphia, PA
Lacoste Gallery, SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
Baltimore Clayworks, More than Skin Deep, Group Exhibition,
Baltimore, MD
Kobo At Higo, Exhibition with Lilith Rockett, Seattle, WA
Gallery Up, Tea Bowl Invitational, Rock Hill, SC
The Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, D.C.
Lacoste Gallery, SOFA New York, New York, NY
The Katzen Center at American University Museum, Tabletop Sculpture, Washington, D.C.
American Craft Council Baltimore Show, Baltimore, MD
2008
Vessel, Imprint, Berkeley, CA
Diane Birdsall Gallery, Winter Landscape, Solo Exhibition, Old Lyme, CT
Project 4 Gallery and Hickok Cole Architects, Art Night, Washington, D.C.
Lacoste Gallery, Vessel and Sculpture, Concord, MA
Kobo At Higo, Solo Exhibition, Seattle, WA
Coincide: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture @Artomatic, Washington, D.C.
Project 4 Gallery at the Herman Miller National Design Center, Art + Space, Washington, D.C., Project 4 Gallery, 2, Washington, D.C.
Red Dirt Studio at NCECA, The Myth of Permanence, Pittsburgh, PA
2007
Project 4 Gallery and the Jenco Group, Abode: Where Art and Design Meet, Washington, D.C.
Red Dirt Studio, New Territories, Solo Exhibition, Mt. Rainier, MD
SKH Gallery, New Work, Solo Exhibition, Great Barrington, MA
Cross MacKenzie Ceramic Arts, Bowled Over, Washington, D.C.

EDUCATION
2002
Ceramics Apprenticeship with Santa Kumar Prajapati,
Master Potter, Thimi Ceramics, Thimi, NEPAL
2001
Ceramics Apprenticeship with Rupert Spira, Master Potter, Church Farm
Pottery, Shropshire, ENGLAND
2000
B.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

GRANT AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2010
Montgomery County Individual Artist Grant
Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington D.C., Exhibitor’s Choice Award
2009
Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Best in Contemporary Clay
Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington D.C., Exhibitor’s Choice Award
American Craft Council Show, Baltimore, Award of Excellence in Ceramics
Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant
2007-2009
Artist-in-Residence, Red Dirt Studio, Mt. Rainier, MD
2004-2006
Ramsay Merriam Grant*
2002-2006
Ramsay Merriam Grant for the Preservation of Indigenous Craft
Traditions, Ramsay Merriam Fund, Washington, D.C.*

SELECTED PRESS
2012
Ceramics Monthly, ‘Review of “Ani Kasten: Offerings” at the Clay Studio’, September 2012
Ceramics Monthly, ‘Thimi, Nepal: Village Traditions in Flux’, May 2012
2011
Nepal: Nostalgia and Modernity, Edited by Deepak Shimkhada, Marg Publications, 2011
Ceramics: Art and Perception, ‘Review of Ani Kasten: Fault Lines at Lacoste Gallery’, Fall 2011
Home and Design, ‘Urban Chic’, Spring 2011
2009
Home Fort Lauderdale, ‘The Maximalist and the Minimalist”, September
2009
Home and Design, ‘An Artist’s Enclave’, May/June 2009
Metropolitan Home, ‘A Fresh Start’, January 2009
2008
Ceramic Review, ‘New Territories’, May/June 2008
2007
House and Garden, U.K., ‘People– Lifestyle’, October 2007
Architectural Digest, ‘Designer’s Own Homes: Suzanne Lovell’, September 2007
Shelter, ‘Connoisseur’s Delight’, May–June 2007
2005
Architectural Digest, ‘The Craftsman’s Eye’, November 2005
Martha Stewart Living, ‘A Well-Crafted Gathering’, September 2005