Here’s a drawing of me

My name is Ryze Xu (He/Him). I am a young immigrant ceramicist currently based in Baltimore. I recently graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art.

In the studio, my work plays with the material’s responsiveness: its ability to be built and to break, to respond to gravity, to succumb to heat.

Form is built by stacking and layering. Tools of the process become the artifact. Objects are shifted through different material lenses.

The ceramic process encourages me to reflect on my American experience.  Driven by anxieties of failure, I often find myself stuck and lost in between two different cultural realities. I see the ceramic process as a metaphor for and a reminder of my position as a young immigrant.

By paying attention to the failures, the shards, the leftovers, and the underlying structures, the ceramic process becomes more fluid and malleable.

Clay allows me to rearticulate, to explore, and to embrace the potential of being “in between”.


To me, the process of clay is a process of migration, where every step is a unique way of moving forward, Where to be lost is never to be wrong, but simply more.


Do not trust artist statements.

Themes

1. Ruins
   
2. Shards & Failures
   
3. The Vanishing Mediator
   
4. Love
   
5. Porcelain
6. ...