“The sublime relationship between the natural world and ceramic processes informs the imagery of my work. Clay morphs from a malleable material into a hard one, and I maneuver heat and fluxed glaze; glaze is applied, fired, melts — it crystallizes onto the surface, like igneous rock. Deviant forms are reinforced by vibrant, lustrous glazes — achieved through layering raw materials and multiple kiln firings. These practices, mimicking geology, lead to unbridled forms with complex surfaces, echoing the metaphorical and elemental qualities of both earth and flux.” – Roxanne Jackson

ANDREW RAFACZ is pleased to announce Candle Holders for the Underworld, a solo exhibition of new ceramics by Roxanne Jackson. The exhibition opens Friday, July 21st and continues through Saturday, September 2, 2023. This is her first exhibition with the gallery.

Roxanne Jackson’s Candle Holders for the Underworld, presents an exhibition of ominous elegance and sensational grist –ripe with energy and ritual that will linger in your gut. Her distinct sculptural practice unearths deep lore and mythic narratives –transporting us to the nether regions of an alternate universe.

The exhibition is a celebration that summons your senses as Jackson’s work titivates the gallery space, transforming it into a meeting place –deep within the psyche of wilderness. The air of heavy metal and stone is thick, beckoning you in for a closer look as shelf fungus protrudes from the gallery walls, presenting cake slices and an engorged clam. Around corners, lime green toe nails shoot out of Sasquatch logs and Medusa’s severed head rests shimmering in the dim light of a flame. Deep jewel and mineral toned glazes craze and slip over surfaces leading your gaze around the room to decipher the riotous symphony of objects.

Sweet Leaf Twilight is an eight-foot-tall candle stick. As a tributary botanic tower of multiple cakes and amphoras stacked on top of each other, it offers sublime lessons amidst the exuberant visuals of flowers co-mingling with food and foliage. Strange and beautiful connections reveal themselves, mingling kingdoms between banana, bird of paradise, and cockatoo.

The exhibition’s centerpiece is a feverish spread featuring the heads of beasts: a fanged wolf-like tiger and boar; entrails, sinew, pork knuckles and grapes, mouthfuls of oysters, plated lobsters, and shiny shrimps. Ram’s horns emerge from the scattered fruits and cheeses, writhing upward like a grumble of maggots, with pewter candle crowns. Eager to be lit on fire, these twirly bones seemingly unscrewed themselves from Beelzebub and wiggled their way onto the table, in the hopes of not missing out on this Wicked Feast.

The works in the exhibition are born directly out of Jackson’s residency at the Center for Contemporary Ceramics, California State, Long Beach, during the first quarter of this year. They are a confluence of historic and contemporary vessels and forms that call upon the elements of land, sea, and the beyond. Whether you stay the course or ride the River Styx, Jackson will be your guide.

ROXANNE JACKSON (American) lives and works in New York, NY. She received her BS in Botany and Art from Humboldt State University (Arcata, CA) and her MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has been an artist-in- residence at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Japan), the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (NE), Socrates Sculpture Park (NY), PLOP (UK), the Ceramic Center of Berlin (Germany), and the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen (China). Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include The Hole (New York, NY), JEFF (Marfa, TX), Duve Berlin (Berlin,DE) with Oli Epp, and Elijah Wheat Showroom (Brooklyn, NY). Recent group exhibitions include David Lewis Gallery (East Hampton, NY) curated by Anton Kern and Adam Cohen, The Hole (Los Angeles, CA), The Hole (New York, NY), NBB Gallery (Berlin, DE), Mindy Solomon Gallery (Miami, FL), and Anonymous Gallery (New York, NY). Recent museum exhibitions include the Schloss Museum (Linz, Austria); Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT); Craft Contemporary (Los Angeles, CA); the Mütter Museum (Philadelphia, PA); the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts (Leipzig, Germany); and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her work was recently acquired by the Museum of Art and Design (New York, NY). She has exhibited at art fairs in New York, Brussels, London, and Miami. She has been reviewed or featured in many publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, LA Times, Juxtapoz Magazine, Hyperallergic, Sculpture Magazine, Forbes, Metal Magazine, Cool Hunting and Ceramics Monthly.