The Clay Studio | Stephanie Kantor: Rosewater

Zeldin Fellow Exhibition, Reed + Smith Gallery

Nov 23rd - Jan 5th, 2020

I am drawn to the ocean as a meditative and mysterious place. Ancient stories, mythologies, and the contemporary culture that surrounds beach towns and vacation destinations drive this body of work. I am inspired by these places of aquatic refuge; places where one might attempt to restore one’s youth or beauty in sacred waters, or else discover trinkets in local souvenir shops that serve as lasting mementos of this process of self-discovery. These objects, mundane in all obvious respects, can develop a gravity of their own in the hands of a perceptive traveller, and it is this sort of sensitivity to the ‘ordinary’ that my current body of work explores. With a playful and humorous approach, I make sculptures and paintings that explore the desire to be surrounded by water and emphasize the mundane objects that embody that experience.