Small and highly rendered, “abstract” yet “overly specific,”i Price’s sculptures have a powerful, charged quality, and Zazz is no exception. Executed in 2004, the sculpture revels in its biomorphic form. Swathes of clay swirl downwards, like molten lava on the run. Colored pockmarks spark the surface of the piece – jewel-like glints beneath a mass of deep purple-gray. The sculpture plays on tension. It can look pre-historic and futuristic at the same time; organic yet totally manufactured. Price’s process was unique - he formed mounds of clay which, once fired in the kiln, he painted with multiple layers of different colors. The surface was then sanded down, revealing the color hidden beneath. The finish is the result of a reductive process, and the viewer is left asking: what else hides beneath the surface?
"To view Price’s intimately scaled work as they evolved over a career of 50 years is to appreciate how his unrelenting quest for new forms and possibilities led ultimately to a redefinition of contemporary sculpture."
—Tom Campbell, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtiiPrice’s work proves crucial in the development and elevation of ceramic craft to fine art that has taken place in the last fifty years. His work, which spans sculpture, drawing, printmaking, painting, and crockery, displays a unique vision of the world – one pounding with artificial color and characterized by a desire to push what art can do.
