Hostler Burrows is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by the artist Kristina Riska. For her first solo show in the United States, nearly a dozen new pieces are on display, including both Riska’s large scale vessels and smaller ceramic objets d'art.
Kristina Riska is a Finnish artist who has been exploring, defying and redefining the traditional tenets of ceramic sculpture since the 1980s. Her unorthodox, large scale stoneware and artworks, which are inspired by nature and the properties of light and shadow, embody her rigorous, physical approach to her work.
New Work investigates Riska’s latest experimentations with clay that largely reflect her process, history and working environment. They are elaborate pieces imbued with a physical and emotional depth, which are the underpinnings of her spontaneous working method.
Riska describes her process as a foray into the unknown, and that with each unplanned, instinctive manipulation of the clay she also establishes a non-physical “internal space.” She describes this space as a repository for her qualities of quietude, serenity and concentration, and also for a very specific memory of the interplay of light and shade cast upon her from the bars of her childhood cot. In an interview with Rae Verkkoranta from the Embassy of Finland in Brussels Riska discusses this process of transference: “… out of all the thoughts that I have had, every touch of the hand, all the ambient sound… these things [sic] latch onto the work,” giving each piece in the exhibition the intangible quality of her own history.
The ethereal, elusive qualities of Riska’s pieces also reflect her ideals of sustainability. She meticulously avoids the superfluous and works with a precision that conveys a striking effect with seemingly very little material.
New Work exemplifies how Riska pushes the boundaries of both her medium and herself. Her latest undertaking has yielded fresh and sincere sculptures, impressive for their dynamism, a quality that permeates Riska’s personality, her physical methods, and the objects themselves.