Atlanta’s Jaime Keiter collages individually handcrafted, painted and glazed tiles to create her ceramic sculptures.
The artist: Born in Cleveland, OH, Keiter grew up in the Atlanta area and graduated from UGA with degree in art, focusing on photography. She moved to NYC for 15 years and worked as a magazine photo editor and art director. In 2016, she returned to Atlanta.
With a background in photography and design, Keiter decided to try ceramics as medium. That way she could work with her hands and create something more tactile than the 2D work she had done in the past.
The art & materials: Ceramic wall sculptures, using different clay bodies ranging from the purest porcelain to speckled stoneware.
Kieter create tiles of various shapes, sizes, textures, patterns, glazes and then “collages” them together to create a larger composition either with grout or mounting tiles directly to panels of board or wood. Smaller works are $100 to $200. Larger framed works, reminiscent of classic mosaic art at first sight, are $300 to $2,000.
The process:
- Rolls slabs of clay and cuts out various sizes of tiles. Also hand builds organic shapes from raw clay.
- Adds patterns and textures.
- Finishes each tile with a variety of different mid-fire glazes,
- Once fired, she collages the tiles together to create her larger grout works or mounts ceramics directly on wood panels
Inspiration:
- The blending of architecture, industrial design, and more traditional art that has taken shape in recent years.
- Bauhaus art of 1920’s pre-war Germany and the postmodern Memphis design movement of the 1980’s. “The shapes, colors, and forms reminiscent of these movements are bold and decisive.”
- Lately, textiles and the looseness of fabric.
Big break: Only a few months after switching her artistic medium from photography to ceramics, Keiter was featured in one of her favorite design publications, Sight Unseen. She then was featured in other publications, including ArtMaze and Vogue.com.
Honors: Exhibited with Daily Operation, a project of curator Jon Lutz and NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) in New York as well as various galleries in the South, including: Poem88, The Lola and Swan House in Atlanta. Also the Cleo Gallery in Savannah.
What’s new:
– “Line” drawings with porcelain that are looser than her other tile works.
– Carved speckled unglazed stoneware that she created when her studio building was closed during the pandemic. Since Keiter did not have access to her usual tools, she worked in her backyard, rolling out slabs on concrete pavers and using rocks to create patterns.
Where to buy: www.jaimekeiter.com
Get social at:
- Instagram: @jaimekeiter
