Whether in effigy pots, vase paintings, or offerings to the dead, ceramics has always been a significant material in the world of the rituals of death, spirituality, and transformation. Dealing with the nature of mortality, issues of loss, hosts, ghosts, surrounding fears, and the meaning of life or afterlife, thirty-two artists portray their relationship with death, its meaning and of life’s fragility.

Death to some involves philosophical interpretations of vulnerability, hardship, grief, mourning, reincarnation and disintegration of the physical self. While to others, death is more political - where issues of gang violence, genocide, and even the plight of coal miners are explored.

Collectively, the diversity of expression found for this universal theme provide an exploration of the reality each of us must ultimately face.

~ Judith Schwartz