Close But Not Quite
Close But Not Quite
Meghan Rutz
12 x 12 x 24 inches
Ceramic
2023
Meghan Rutz uses clay, paper, and the body to explore the relationship between the natural world and unnatural experiences. Her ritualistic practice often weaves together the familiar and the strange, marrying the otherworldly with the intense physicality of material.
Rutz fell in love with natural forms growing up in rural Pennsylvania. She honed her process at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, receiving her BFA in Sculpture in 2019. Her studio is currently in Houston, TX, where she fosters her practice as a ceramicist and beekeeper.
Her practice begins within the act of searching for a space that feels familiar in places that are increasingly unfamiliar. By exploring the material characteristics of clay, I create scenes that act as a catalyst for feeling at home by embracing forms that are at once recognizable and unidentifiable. These sculptures, often large-scale, shift from natural to bodily to other-worldly and ask the viewer to explore and uncover the magic within each glaze and fold.