Maya Frodeman Gallery is pleased to present The Bark or the Poney, a solo exhibition of ceramic sculpture by French artist Chloé Peytermann, on view May 10th through June 9th, 2024.
“It's hard for me to give up images / I need the plowshare to go through me / Mirror of winter, of age / I need to be seeded by time.”
- Philippe Jaccottet
Citing the a poem by Swiss Francophone poet and translator Jaccottet, Chloé Peytermann also wrote the following about this solo exhibition, her first with Maya Frodeman Gallery: “Recently, in the workshop and in my hands, things took a surprising turn, and I was the first to be surprised.It was a turn towards a form of figuration, or an abstraction becoming figurative. Human characters and animals, often fanciful, shaped at speed, the fruit of an inspired gesture, in search of a fleeting emotion or a meaningful movement. Moments of tenderness, of doubt, of strangeness, of promise, are frozen, as it were, in the fired clay and the matte surface of the glaze. In these small paradoxical objects is an expression which swells up as it is pared down; waiting for its emergence, I stay somehow aloof, without feeling proud. The glaze is their skin, the ceramic material is there in all its power, revealing the spontaneity of touch, containing the form within a gentleness which holds on to time. Immutable snapshots of an instant, these clay sketches have found an anchor, taken their place and formed a society. They are characters looking at us and questioning us in our own epoch, but issued from a distant and legendary past. They seem to have withdrawn from our noisy world. They are waiting. Their melancholy is turning into a call.”
Peytermann captures human moments and connections in the form of enchanting ceramic figurines. These figures hint at humanity, but are never fully identifiable as man, animal, object, or something in between. Yet, they are embodiments of uniquely human emotions; moments of tenderness, doubt, strangeness, and promise become frozen in the firing of her beautiful enamelwork. Often vaguely anthropomorphic, the figures are still, silent, and at times seemingly stuck, as if waiting for something, the zenith of the moment so whimsically captured.
Chloé Peytermann graduated in 2006 with a diploma in ceramic design. Peytermann’s work is exhibited in many galleries in France, Switzerland and Belgium. Her work is also part of the permanent collection of the Swiss Museum of Ceramics and Glass in Geneva and the Atelier de Kahla collection. In 2010, Peytermann won the Kahla Kreativ competition. She has presented her work in many contemporary ceramic fairs internationally, notably in South Corea. Chloe Peytermann lives and works in Dieulefit, France.
