The Jane Hartsook Gallery is pleased to present ceramic work by Heesoo Lee. Renown for her techniques in realist painting with thirty or more layers of pigmented clay, Lee addresses intricate human conditions through vibrant iterations of the natural world. Depicting poppy flowers, aspen trees and irises, Lee accentuates light and shadow as a metaphor for experiencing durations of time, human connection and personal identity. Lee embeds this imagery within the ceramic forms, animating details with a human-likeness and transferring such lively depictions into curious, new realities of an outside environment.

Lee forms her work with both porcelain and white stoneware. She meticulously applies multiple, thin layers of color, creating high levels of uncertainty as the pigments react and interact in the kiln firing. The reward Lee experiences from such risk-taking reiterates the fluctuation between lightness and stability present in her work.

Heesoo Lee was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea earning her Bachelors of Art in Art from Ewha University in 1996. Lee began a full-time studio practice in Berkley, CA in 2000 later relocating to Maui, HI. In 2013, she was an Artist-in-Residence at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT returning for a year-long residency in 2014. Lee has been featured in Ceramics Monthly and her work was recently part of the 2016 Akar Design Yunomi and Americano Invitational in Iowa City.

Greenwich House Pottery is a school that supports artists and their projects with a commitment to teaching and promoting ceramics. Starting with clay modeling classes in the earliest days of Greenwich House as part of its Handicraft School, the Pottery flourished with the help of the community and philanthropic support from patrons like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. GHP remains a stalwart of innovation and art.

GHP is dedicated to expanding public awareness of the diversity and complexity of ceramics and fostering the development of artists through internships, residencies, exhibitions and classes. Extending our educational mission of making, exhibiting, and learning from contemporary ceramics, GHP operates “Ceramics Now,” an exhibition series in the Jane Hartsook Gallery committed to supporting emerging, underrepresented and established ceramists.

GHP raises awareness of the importance of creative engagement with art. Like so many nonprofit arts organizations, GHP plays a vital role in community building and providing access to the arts. Centers like GHP have become rare but are regaining popularity as society rediscovers the amazement in creating art by engaging physically with materials. GHP offers a chance to learn from clay in a direct way, particularly the pottery community of the West Village, and to foster connections between artists, material and the larger ceramics community.