Silver Linings No. 2

About Silver Linings No. 2

This contemporary ceramic black vessel in a floral shape is by Loren Kaplan.

A gifted ceramicist, Loren Kaplan’s strikingly elegant work is highly regarded by international collectors. Kaplan’s porcelain artwork is informed by her homeland, South Africa. This black stone vessel is hand-built from coiled clay—its fluid organic shape inspired by a flowering plant called Nigella Damascena, (common name Love in the Mist), but it is also called ‘Devil in a bush’, referring to its dark, spiky seed pods. The rich, textured, dark finish is created by adding a variety of glazes, layered over each other.
As the name of this collection suggests—these pieces reference finding peace following emotional struggle—the silver lining. One in a series.

“What emerged for me was a tension between the geometry and the organic and I played with these within the forms and in the relationships and conversations between each vessel while making.” Loren Kaplan

“For Loren, the vessel can be multi-purpose and is meant to start a conversation between the object and the viewer. It might hold light, or sound, or even a metaphor like hope, or perhaps human potential and opportunity; perhaps the vessel can function to hold something like a flower.” Notes from a show at the Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto.

Loren Kaplan earned a BFA from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and studied at the Kim Sacks School of Ceramics. In 1995 she established a studio and began a teaching career with the Visual Arts and Crafts Academy in Johannesburg. Kaplan has exhibited regularly in South Africa, Canada and the US and has received numerous awards. Her work is held in many private collections and in the South African Constitutional Court Art Collection.