Designer Glaze

Utilitarian on most counts and chiefly seen in the kitchen section of IKEA, it’s no wonder that ceramics haven’t enjoyed the same pull as their painting cousins. But did you know that ceramics – the Greek variety, specifically – count as art history’s pioneers, and that in 2003 ceramic artist Grayson Perry bagged one of the contemporary art world’s biggest accolades, the Turner Prize?

No? We bet you didn’t. And we bet you’ve never considered ceramic works for your home beyond their use as vessels for your plants. Change this belief at Shalini Ganendra Fine Art this month. Their exhibition ‘Designer Glaze’ has a permanent ceramic wall installation designed by KBU design students at centrestage, and the entire show challenges the notion that art for the home is all about paintings and pretty framed pictures.

Preliminary sketches by the 25 KBU students envisage a large installation with details like delicate ceramic flowers. And the non-painting mantra is driven home by a chorus of selected works that consider materiality – marble, textiles and more ceramics. This includes finely woven ikat pieces from the gallery’s Collector’s Cube and sturdy marble pieces that would give an oil painting a run for its money. What’s a life lived with art? Something that doesn’t have to be drawn the conventional way, as ‘Designer Glaze’ seems to say. And that, ladies and gents, is anything but immaterial.