Eric Serritella

Eric Serritella is recognized internationally as one of the top ceramic trompe l’oeil artists in the world. He specializes in hand-carved sculptures transforming clay into birch, charred and weathered logs. His one-of-a-kind pieces are known for their hyper-realism, and have been exhibited, awarded and collected on five continents for their exquisite organic design and incredibly lifelike textures. Works have been contributed to over 150 exhibitions and are represented in many museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Mint Museum. He was honored by the James Renwick Alliance as the 2016 Distinguished Artist in Ceramics at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His 2018 solo show at Jason Jacques Gallery was recommended in the NY Times and he has received positive acclaim by Architectural Digest and renowned art critic/historian Daniella Ohad.

Each piece Serritella makes begins as a blank piece of clay where work begins spontaneously and intuitively without the use of wood samples or models. He uses wheel throwing, slab building and hand building techniques to create his expressive forms. All the texture and details are hand-carved and no molds are used. After applying ceramic oxides for accent colors, the pieces are fired to over 2,100º.

Recent explorations in glass have widened his pallet for material and color and are beginning to emerge in a new body of cast glass and pate de verre works, often in combination with clay elements.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Yes…we are to blame. We are f&%ing up the environment. Humans’ continued disregard and negative actions are eliminating ecosystems and driving extinctions. The planet is warming, lands are burning, waters are rising, and resources are disappearing. This is our doing, and we need to change our behaviors now. The planet will outlast us. It is our present world, and the future world of our children and grandchildren, that we are trashing.

Artwork has a voice, and mine speaks to environmental awareness and changing behaviors. Each sculpture captures and holds the beauty nature maintains, even when in peril. My work is a conduit to emotion through inquiry, recognition and familiarity. It serves as an arena for connection, resonance and reverberation.

Through aging and decay my clay and glass sculptures challenge the viewer with both the nature of the material and the messages within. I unearth how nature maintains its splendors with tenacity and triumphs of existence, despite human disregard. I appreciate how ceramic and glass each mirror the environment’s fragility and durability—easily damaged if disrespected and yet invincible in their inherent beauty and longevity.

Each organic creation is filled with metaphor, both literal and implied. Anthropomorphic elements and vessel forms link humanity as timelessly inseparable from our natural surroundings. Each sculpture fosters awareness to affect viewers’ behaviors toward the environment. Behaviors that must change immediately and which begin by walking with softer steps.