Skip to main content

Oxblood Neo Classique Vase

Oxblood Neo Classique Vase

View Similar Items

Linda Stein - Contemporary Mixed Media Wunderkammer Sculpture Leaving Home with Mementos 1286

Contemporary Mixed Media Wunderkammer Sculpture Leaving Home with Mementos 1286

Rachel Denny - Aries

Aries

Rachel Denny - Star Grazers

Rachel Denny - The Young Prince

The Young Prince

Rachel Denny - Late Spring

Late Spring

Rachel Denny - Drifter

Drifter

Rachel Denny - Silver Sheep Study

Silver Sheep Study

Rachel Denny - Big Thaw

Big Thaw

Rachel Denny - Trickster

Trickster

Rachel Denny - King of the Hill

King of the Hill

Rachel Denny - Snowshoe - Fall

Snowshoe - Fall

Rachel Denny - Snowshoe - Spring

Snowshoe - Spring

Video Loading

1 of 10

Tommy Zen
Oxblood Neo Classique Vase

About the Item

Mixed media ceramic sculpture. Unique hand-made vessel. 500 years separate Tommy Zen from his Neolithic pottery ancestors. It is, however, the same kind of coiling that is repeated and the same pigments that are used: sienna and umber - the dark reds of Hacilar vases, the jet black of Cilician ceramists. The shapes of Tommy Zen’s work also draw from the origins of humanity, so much so that they look like vestiges brought to surface and light by a passionate archaeologist. Examples of his work include glazed amphorae in which the Phoenician sailors kept oil, red pottery from the people of El Ran, massive storage jars of the Cretan civilization, Nineveh vases with long tapered legs, cinerary urns as found in Tibeto-Burman tombs, and wells with ferrules that played a big role in the development of Indus cities. His inspiration may be diverse, but it generates work that bears a strange and fascinating power of evocation every time. Hieratic and mysterious, Tommy Zen's large vases disturb our subconscious. They remind us of those ancient times when the command of magical forces of nature and the universe pervaded every artistic event. They are objects that transcend their domestic calling to reach cosmogony: source of life as containers for water and provisions; eternal rest in the secrets of burial urns. These are the libation vases that appease malicious spirits - the ritual vases of shamans and soothsayers offering food to the souls of the dead. Some redden like the hearts of half-asleep volcanoes, others have their flanks glow like barbaric armor where improbable milky ways are conjured. Still others have the warm patina of antique furniture imagined in darkened sandalwood-scented rooms; the brilliance of acute blues aptly called "Prussian", and the yellows that pulsate above the Neapolitan streets on bright sunny days. His objects intend to bring about escape from every day life. Cabinetmakers – from father to son, generation after generation – compose Tommy Zen's Venetian family. With woodworker’s blood, he cannot lie: to enamel and traditional glaze, the ceramist prefers the plasters and gilding of luxury furniture. He borrows the oxidants on bronze or silver sheets from Italian Renaissance and, from Ancestral China, the lacquered varnishes that create deep shades in which the eye gets lost. With the fusion of many techniques developed over more than twenty years, pieces like no other are born, whose unfathomable surfaces owe nothing to conventional glazes. Each piece is entirely hand-sanded and baked at high heat (2200 °F), which increases its resistance to shocks. Sizes range from 36 to 144 inches in height and from 29 to 60 inches in diameter. As for shape, anything is possible: from palm tree planter to roman thermal baths; same goes for color – pigments or oxidants – and surface texture.

Creator:
Tommy Zen (Canadian)
Dimensions:
Height: 84 in (213.36 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
Medium:
Ceramic,Mixed Media
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Miami, FL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU161429216202

You May Also Like

Contemporary Mixed Media Wunderkammer Sculpture Leaving Home with Mementos 1286

Located in New York, NY

Linda Stein, Leaving Home with Mementos 1286 - Contemporary Art Mixed Media Wunderkammer Sculpture This work from Linda Stein's Displacement From Home series draws from the traditio...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Contemporary Mixed Media Wunderkammer Sculpture Leaving Home with Mementos 1286

Linda Stein
Contemporary Mixed Media Wunderkammer Sculpture Leaving Home with Mementos 1286, 2025

$49,000

Aries

By Rachel Denny

Located in Bozeman, MT

'We surround ourselves with elements from nature in the form of manicured lawns, sculpted trees, and our domesticated companions. We bend the natural world to our tastes and create a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Aries

Rachel Denny
Aries, 2024

$3,400

Star Grazers

By Rachel Denny

Located in Bozeman, MT

'We surround ourselves with elements from nature in the form of manicured lawns, sculpted trees, and our domesticated companions. We bend the natural world to our tastes and create a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Rachel Denny
Star Grazers, 2023

$16,100

Late Spring

By Rachel Denny

Located in Bozeman, MT

'We surround ourselves with elements from nature in the form of manicured lawns, sculpted trees, and our domesticated companions. We bend the natural world to our tastes and create a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Late Spring

Rachel Denny
Late Spring, 2023

$5,750

Drifter

By Rachel Denny

Located in Bozeman, MT

'We surround ourselves with elements from nature in the form of manicured lawns, sculpted trees, and our domesticated companions. We bend the natural world to our tastes and create a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Drifter

Rachel Denny
Drifter, 2023

$4,850

The Young Prince

By Rachel Denny

Located in Bozeman, MT

'We surround ourselves with elements from nature in the form of manicured lawns, sculpted trees, and our domesticated companions. We bend the natural world to our tastes and create a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

The Young Prince

Rachel Denny
The Young Prince, 2023

$9,800

Recently Viewed

More Ways To Browse

Red Lacquer Planter

Tree Of Life Pottery

View All Popular Abstract Sculptures Searches