Bio
Clarissa Pezone is a sculptor living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. Her studio work includes figurative sculpture and installation using clay, paint and mixed media. Influenced by mythology, the uncanny and lore, Pezone explores themes that exist between reality and the unknown. Born in Sacramento, CA, She received her BA from Humboldt State University and an MFA from Indiana University Bloomington. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN), C.R.E.T.A Rome (Rome, Italy), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Arlington (Arlington, VA).
Artist Statement
Interests in realism, classical figurative sculpture, and personal mythology are at the heart of my research and practice. Using confrontational scale and uncanny representations of the human body, my work seeks to explore aspects of my identity, inner and external self. Using attributes of my appearance as a character or dopplegänger, the shell of the body gives me the opportunity to think about the mythology of self, and the ways that we are both actualized and alienated by our external selves. These figures are both a ceramic object as well as a method of performance, to allow the vulnerability of being seen in moments or emotions that are often hidden for the comfort of others. Found objects as well as trompe l'oeil sculpted objects create a confusion about the layers of reality within the piece about what is real or fabricated, and express the often confusing ways we relate to ourselves, our individualism and identity. I am interested in creating scenes and figures that feel complexly emotional and have the feeling of spirit in the inanimate.
Clay is important for its ability to emulate other material, but still hold markers of its own process of becoming. I think of clay as a personified material, with its own agency and memory, and therefore a collaborator with the memory of the body or object I am forming it into. I create trompe l’oeil objects to honor the way personal possessions can carry the weight of memory, and parts of self that are generational and developmental. Objects and homes carry legacy and selfhood. The way I choose to collect, memorialize, or replicate objects and spaces is based on my own recollections and experiences that hold the spirit of childhood fears and confusion about the notion of home.
Interests in realism, classical figurative sculpture, and personal mythology are at the heart of my research and practice. Using confrontational scale and uncanny representations of the human body, my work seeks to explore aspects of my identity, inner and external self. Using attributes of my appearance as a character or dopplegänger, the shell of the body gives me the opportunity to think about the mythology of self, and the ways that we are both actualized and alienated by our external selves. These figures are both a ceramic object as well as a method of performance, to allow the vulnerability of being seen in moments or emotions that are often hidden for the comfort of others. Found objects as well as trompe l'oeil sculpted objects create a confusion about the layers of reality within the piece about what is real or fabricated, and express the often confusing ways we relate to ourselves, our individualism and identity. I am interested in creating scenes and figures that feel complexly emotional and have the feeling of spirit in the inanimate.
Clay is important for its ability to emulate other material, but still hold markers of its own process of becoming. I think of clay as a personified material, with its own agency and memory, and therefore a collaborator with the memory of the body or object I am forming it into. I create trompe l’oeil objects to honor the way personal possessions can carry the weight of memory, and parts of self that are generational and developmental. Objects and homes carry legacy and selfhood. The way I choose to collect, memorialize, or replicate objects and spaces is based on my own recollections and experiences that hold the spirit of childhood fears and confusion about the notion of home.