Exhibition > Featured Artists

David Korty

It was in 2005 that I discovered the Xiem studio and began experimenting with clay. I think what originally drew me to ceramics was a desire to make work outside of my painting work. I wanted to find a more neutral creative space. Somewhere where I could feel like a beginner again. It was exciting to finally work in form and space instead of just dealing with surface all of the time. What I usually do when I arrive at the clay studio is prepare the clay. I roll slabs or extrude tubes. Early on it was rare for me to know what I was going to make but I found that once I had the materials on the table in front of me things would begin to occur. One thing just would lead to another in a very natural way. Sometimes it was as simple as cutting a slab into strips and then finding a way to re-combine those strips. Like drawing them upwards into arcs which would balance on each other. Or combining them in a post and beam fashion to make a tall thin structure. A lot of the time it would just collapse in the kiln but it would always teach me something. It took a long time to find my way and to begin to understand how ceramics behave. Its always like a conversation. I tell the clay what I want it to do and it tells me what it wants to do. Its the point where both of those forces meet that things begin to germinate.

David Korty (b. San Francisco, CA, 1971) received his MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1999, and his BFA from RISD, in Providence, RI, in 1992. He has shown extensively in Los Angeles, with solo exhibitions at such venues as Night Gallery, China Art Objects, LAXART, at Greene Naftali in New York, and at Sadie Coles HQ in London. Korty's work has been acquired by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Grunwald Center for Graphic Arts, Los Angeles, and the Judith Rothschild Foundation. He lives and works in Los Angeles.