Ceramics
Claire Harlow
San Francisco, California, United States
“The inside of a vessel is not empty; it is the part held in reserve.”
Biography
Claire Harlow trained as an industrial designer, then spent a decade learning production pottery before establishing an independent sculptural practice. Her compressed vessels retain the logic of use while turning rims, seams, and interior color into spatial events.
Artist statement
Harlow is interested in the moment a container stops behaving like a container. Folding and joining allow the interior to become visible as a second, more saturated body.
In the studio
Forms are slab-built from mixed stoneware bodies, dried under fabric, and altered repeatedly at leather hardness. Harlow applies layered cobalt and ash glazes selectively, leaving pale clay exposed where touch matters most.
