The Portrait and the Figure in Ceramics
with Rodrigo Lara Zendejas
CERAMICS 668 001 | 3 credits | $225 Lab Fee
June 23 - July 6, 2024
This studio class for beginning and experienced students addresses the evolution of the figurative object as a consistently potent vehicle in the art continuum. Emphasis is placed on students’ personal investigations of the human form as a subject in contemporary ceramics, beyond the study of anatomy. An examination of a variety of ceramic construction strategies and techniques are explored through demonstrations and class projects concentrating on hand building without an armature. Firing and post-firing processes, surface treatments, and the incorporation of other media with clay will be covered. The figure in architecture, its relationship to vessels, and three-dimensional figure will be examined.Historical and contemporary concepts and artists related to ceramics and the figurative object in general will be included. Readings will include Mark Manders’ “My Work is Always Totally Silent” and we will screen “Stories” by Kiki Smith. Students will analyze and learn mass, form, and proportion in 3-5 projects focusing on portraits and figures. The work developed during class time could be approached as either proportionate and detailed; or whimsical, stylized, and hilarious.
Born 1981, Mexico. Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, Assistant Professor/Area Head of the Ceramics Department; University of Notre Dame. He received an MFA from SAIC in 2013 and his BFA, from the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico in 2003. Lara has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Museo de Arte Moderno in the state of Mexico; Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, Mexico; Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago; C.G. Boerner in New York City; Kruger Gallery in Marfa, Texas; among others. Lara has two monographs of his work, Máscaras y Artefactos and Memorials. He won the first price in sculpture at the Premio Nacional de las Artes Visuales in Mexico in 2010. He has received several awards including: IAPG, DCASE, Chicago; Proyectos Especiales and Jóvenes Creadores, FONCA, Mexico City; Emerging Artist Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC; James Nelson Raymond Fellowship, 2013 SAIC; PECDA Estudios en el extranjero, IQCA; International Graduate Scholarship, SAIC; and the John W. Kurtich Travel Scholarship, SAIC, Berlin/Kassel, Germany, among others. He currently lives and works in Chicago.
Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, As Is, 2022, glazed ceramic, 33 x 13 x 10 in.