Ruchika Madan

Ruchika Madan at MudFire

Gallery group show Creatures of the Night, August 2011
Gallery group show Draw and Decal, July 2009

Ruchika Madan Artist Bio

Ruchika Madan is a ceramic artist producing decorative and functional pottery and handmade tiles. The images she uses are derived from plant forms as well as ordinary objects, textures, and patterns observed in nature. Inspirations include linoleum and woodcut prints, textile designs, architecture, and traditions in ceramic and decorative art.

Pieces are made from white stoneware clay and decorated with colored slips. Drawings are carved through the slip in the sgraffito technique. All of the pieces are made individually and are one-of-a-kind.

Ruchika Madan Artist Statement

As our lives involve more and more assistance from technology, I am fascinated to see the continued importance that we place on the handmade object. There is a symbolism that we attach to these objects and something we are seeking when we bring them into our everyday lives. Though aesthetics are of importance in our architecture or in the products we use, we have a special reverence for things that can not be reproduced by machine. The love of these objects, their resistance to "progress" and the humanity that they represent keep me working in clay.

Patterns and textures I see, in the order of the stones in a pavement, branches on a winter sky, or undulations of sand formed on the ocean floor are translated in my work. The images I use are emblems of hope and life and indications of the persistence of nature. A tiny bird, a seedling, or a vine can go about its quiet business in spite of human activity and the seeming improbability of its endurance. Inspirations include linoleum and woodcut prints, textile designs, architecture, and traditions in ceramic and decorative art.