Maxwell Mustardo
The sensuality of clay
“Like a pig in filth, I could not be happier playing in the studio, and I find a similar reckless abandon there.”
Maxwell Mustardo’s ceramics highlight the sensuality of clay. His practice begins with everyday ceramic objects like mugs, cups, pitchers, and vases that we usually take for granted. Mustardo defamiliarises them by exaggerating their forms or coating them in bright textured plastic. His series Anthropophorae gives new life to classical amphorae (Roman and Greek pots). The bulbous shapes of the clay resemble something organic, fleshy, even human. It is important to Mustardo that his objects are recognisable – “I try to make things accessible to everybody as much as possible.”
Mustardo describes...
Maxwell Mustardo’s ceramics highlight the sensuality of clay. His practice begins with everyday ceramic objects like mugs, cups, pitchers, and vases that we usually take for granted. Mustardo defamiliarises them by exaggerating their forms or coating them in bright textured plastic. His series Anthropophorae gives new life to classical amphorae (Roman and Greek pots). The bulbous shapes of the clay resemble something organic, fleshy, even human. It is important to Mustardo that his objects are recognisable – “I try to make things accessible to everybody as much as possible.”
Mustardo describes ceramics as “a polyphonic medium: one that speaks in multiple voices simultaneously”. Working in ceramics means working with surface, texture, colour, form, and function. For Mustardo, they are all iterations of the same thing – voices working together to produce harmony. Mustardo imposes restraints on his creative process by working in object-specific series. For example, he will spend months only making mugs, and then several months making flower pots, and then toroids – exploring the possibilities of a given form. Through this process, Mustardo discovers all the ways clay can sing.
Maxwell Mustardo (he/him) was born in 1993 in rural New Jersey. He lives and works in Quakertown, New Jersey.
Mustardo attended a Quaker boarding school until he was expelled for what he calls “moral bankruptcy.”
Mustardo began the Shot Glasses series while recovering from surgery. He couldn’t look down or lift heavy objects, so he started experimenting with small objects.
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