Zemer Peled’s Porcelain Flowers

INTERVIEWED BY Michaela Stehr

We spoke to Israeli artist Zemer Peled about her beautiful and delicate bloom sculptures and installations, constructed from shards of porcelain.

When did you begin your artistic journey?

I have been surrounded by art all my life and was always encouraged by my parents to find my artistic path. Through most of my childhood, I danced and believed it would be “my thing,” but I “retired” after high school and started exploring other artistic paths. I applied to Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and very quickly realised that this was what I wanted to do.

What things inspire you or influence your art?

My work is inspired by traditions and the use of old crafts for creating contemporary sculptures.

The work examines the beauty and brutality of the natural world and in my current body of work, I’m influenced by the historically important era in ceramic history, Kakiemon and Imari. I look at the small paintings, then enlarge them and turn them into life-size sculptures. The pieces are made out of thousands of porcelain shards, coloured with red, orange, green, yellow, gold and cobalt blue glazes, which are then restructured into anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptural forms.

What draws you to sculpture and what is your main medium?

For the past few years I have been working mainly with porcelain. The process of working with this material is essential for me when I’m working on new sculptures. I love touching and playing with the material and discovering new forms. When a new piece is made, I feel like it is a dance between space, the material and myself.

Do you have anything exciting planned for the near future?

At the moment I have my two large-scale installation pieces installed at two museum group exhibitions, namely at the Holter Art Museum and Missoula Museum of Art, both in the US.

In September 2016, I’ll have my first solo show with my new gallery representation (the Mark Moore Gallery) in Los Angeles.

Moreover, my work was just featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly Magazine’s May issue (highlighted as an Emerging Artist to watch). Ceramics Monthly magazine is one of the most important ceramics magazines in the world – it’s a great honour for me.

See more of Zemer’s work here.