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After participating in a number of collectives locally and abroad, ceramic sculptor Nadya Anne Mangion is presenting her work in SINGULARITY, her first solo exhibition which showcases the results of her experimenting with new techniques and glazes.
Nadya has been working in ceramics for a good number of years now. Her favourite medium is raku-fired clay which she uses as the key to her creativity; transforming it into artefacts that can be quite organic in form. The sea with its ever-changing surface at times calm, rippled and rounded; sometimes rough, jagged, crashing waves on eroded rock is the main source of her inspiration. Seasonal changes, variation in colour, unpredictability in weather patterns become embedded and find their expression in her work.
Drawing and painting from her early years, Nadya always felt that she could not express herself to the fullest on paper or canvas. “Working with clay means more to me than the touch or feel of the medium. Somehow the earthiness of the material grounds me involving all my senses.”
“The preferred finishes to my pieces are a turquoise copper glaze interspersed with black smoked, polished surfaces and splashes of bright vibrant colours,” adds Nadya. “The sea is the main source of inspiration to me. The lustre of copper meandering in the blue-green of turquoise ties me to the sea. It gives them warmth, lifting them from a static piece to one which has movement as light is reflected off the surface just like the sun glints off the surface of the sea.
“Pots start their life pinched from a lump of clay, enlarged by coiling and then deformed, textured, polished, glazed or smoked. From small hand-held pinch pots to larger pots, they are reminiscent of polished pebbles or figure silhouettes.”
Raku-firing controls the chemical oxidation/reduction of the glazes used. This firing technique perfectly marries Nadya’s scientific background with her artistic instinct.
SINGULARITY runs from tomorrow, September 19 till October 4, 2019 at Razzett tal-Markiz, Mosta. For more information call 9947 7252, email nadyamangion@yahoo.com, or visit https://www.facebook.com/RakuElements/
