MOLLY ALTMAN

Symmetry and chaos, ephemerality and ruthlessness, immediacy and age– these qualities of the natural world serve as guiding forces in my work’s process and aesthetic. Themes of environmental degradation, resilience, and impermanence are repeatedly evoked by my ceramic work, in which nature frequently steps beyond the role of inspiration and is brought into my studio to become a direct collaborator. My sculptural work often incorporates locally collected flora which I dip in porcelain and fire. Through this process, I deconstruct what is familiar—leaves, flowers, vines, grasses—reducing them to the roots of their forms, and then assemble them to create micro-environments which reflect their ecologies of origin. The work invites viewers to reframe their understandings of their natural environments and consider the fraught, symbiotic relationship between humanity and ecosystem. By vitrifying pieces of my surroundings, things otherwise predestined for decay at the hands of the seasons and human-induced climate change, I am reminded of the impermanence of our fragile ecosystems. In this way, the work is a celebration, and also an act of preservation– of freezing a moment in time as our landscape currently stands, granting acknowledgement to the idea that it is more or less impermanent.

Molly Altman is a ceramic artist who works directly with her local floral ecology to create intricate porcelain sculptures. Altman obtained a BA in ceramics from Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont in 2019. Her experience includes Artist Residencies at Green River Pottery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Recipiente Estudio in Mexico City, and Cobb Mountain Art and Ecology in Loch Lomond, California. She has taught and shown work nationally and internationally and her works are featured in private and public collections including the Bennington College Permanent Collection and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Altman is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Carbondale Clay Center in Carbondale, Colorado.