Christopher Brock and Matthias Vriens-McGrath Present New Ceramic Work

Pottery aficionados, take note. A pair of independent exhibitions taking place during Los Angeles’s week of contemporary art fairs celebrate the work of two Southern California creatives. Ojai-based ceramist Christopher Brock will be toasted at the Rick Owens store on La Brea on Friday, February 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Two days later, on Sunday, February 17, designer and photographer extraordinaire Matthias Vriens-McGrath will present his latest ceramic work at Atelier MVM on Beverly Boulevard.

“I’m exploring a new style I call Brutalist Deco, synthesizing inspiration from Brutalist architecture and the more refined lines of Art Deco,” Brock says of his recent output. His new ceramic vessels broaden the range of his aesthetic investigations, which began in 2013 with pieces that conformed more closely to simple Art Deco shapes but then expanded to include references to Etruscan, Egyptian, and Greek archetypes. The textures, glazes, and encrusted patina of his latest creations suggest the pieces have languished for centuries in subterranean ruins or the wrecks of ships lost in the Aegean Sea.

Vriens-McGrath’s idiosyncratic efforts encompass ceramic mushroom-shaped table lamps and vessels the designer refers to as Mientjes. “The faces on the vases reminded me of my grandmother, who we used to call Mientje. She had a very stately, stern presence,” the Dutch-born maker explains. “I applied glazes like a contemporary artist uses paint, wild and gestural,” he adds. Each of his pieces is unique, the result of slight variations in form, firing, and glaze. “I’m never sure exactly how they will come out of the kiln,” notes Vriens-McGrath. “That’s part of the fun.”