Ira Winarsky
Exotic Nest, 2011

Ceramic, Iridescent Glaze

Landscape Vessels are the plates, bowls and vases that Winarsky considered to be “three dimensional sculptured canvases from which I create iridescent environment with glazes.” All inspired by natural landscapes, some of the vessels were conceived with a strict formal geometry while some were inspired by the softness of the medium. Most were named by Winarsky for the place they evoke. Landscape Vessels are a true reinvention and synthesis of the ceramic category of vessels with sculpture. Some are quite erotic, with sensual human forms. Other massive, heavy pieces poke subtle fun at ceramists that try to make their works thinner and thinner. Although shaped like containers, from bowls to saucers to nests, these creations defy by their nature any reference to utility, Ira saw them instead as containers of atmosphere, space and land-and therefore truly as a landscape, above all else.