Lauren Sandler Virtual Feature

This series investigates historic and contemporary narratives of power and perspective through the familiarity of the vessel, assembled as stacked parts, embedded with an accumulation of cultural objects. The recognition of the vessel form serves as an entry point to challenge the presumptive neutrality of material, and asks the viewer to step closer to understand layers of context. These pieces consider the extraction and production of tea, sugar, coffee, salt, and other systems to examine economies of control that constitute migration, occupation, commodification, and labor. With discursive content, the objects signify the monumental and mundane, function and adornment, domestic and sacred across time and place.

Lauren Sandler is a ceramic artist and educator whose work deconstructs mythologies and investigates narratives of power and perspective. Sandler exhibits nationally, and gives talks, workshops, and publishes work regarding contemporary and historic issues in ceramics. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from Penn State University, and undergraduate degrees in Anthropology and Ceramics from Ithaca College and SUNY New Paltz. She is Assistant Professor and Program Head of Ceramics at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, and served on the Board of The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts as Director at Large from 2019-2022.