ZEMER PELED
New Year's Best Dream, 2015
Ceramic porcelain shards, fired clay, mixed media, wooden pedestal
71 × 55 × 58 in (180.3 × 139.7 × 147.3 cm)
Flowered Lions 2, 2015
Porcelain, 11 × 10 × 8 in
Shards Flower 1, 2019
Porcelain; 18 × 21 × 16 in
Shards Flower 4, 2019
Porcelain, 14 × 11 × 11 in
Shards Flower 24, 2019
Porcelain, 21 × 21 × 8 in
Shards Flower 25, 2020
Porcelain, 21 × 18 × 10 in
Looking Up, 2016 / Porcelain shards, fired clay / H21 x W13 x L10
Private Collection
Never Look Down, 2016 / Porcelain shards, fired clay / H16 x W13 x L8
Private Collection
Untitled, 2015 / porcelain shards, fired clay / 12.5 x 13.3 x 7.4 inches
Single Central Bloom, 2015 / porcelain shards, fired clay / 12 x 12 x 5 inches
Formed Shards, 2012 / ceramic shards, fired clay / 31 x 13 x 13.7 inches
Private Collection
Formed Shards, 2012 / detail view
I am walking in a forest of shards, 2012 / site-specific installation / dimensions variable / ceramic shards, clay, metal
Henry Moore Gallery at the Royal College of Art (London)
I am walking in a forest of shards, 2012 / site-specific installation / dimensions variable / ceramic shards, clay, metal
Henry Moore Gallery at the Royal College of Art (London)
Sky Island, 2015 / installation view
Northcutt Steele Gallery, Billings, MT
Sky Island, 2015 / installation view
Northcutt Steele Gallery, Billings, MT
Large Peony and Peeping Tom, 2014 / porcelain shards, clay, metal / 72 x 46 x 30 inches
Private Collection
Large Peony and Peeping Tom, 2014 / porcelain shards, clay, metal / 72 x 46 x 30 inches
Private Collection
Pair by the Sea, 2014 / porcelain shards, fired clay / 11 x 19 x 23 inches
Private Collection
Pair by the Sea, 2014 / detail view
Artist in the studio, 2014
Zemer Peled's work examines the beauty and brutality of the natural world. Her sculptural language is formed by her surrounding environment and landscapes, and engages with themes of memories, identity, and place. The association of porcelain with grace, refinement, and civilization is turned on itself when we are confronted with this material in another state. When a porcelain form is broken down into shards, the brutality of its jagged edges is juxtaposed with its insistent fragility. The material becomes both violent and beautiful, hard yet breakable. When seen in the organic formations of Peled’s structures, a whole from the shards is recreated, this time estranged from its original context of neatness, tradition, and cultivation, but nonetheless unified by an overall cohesiveness of movement and composition.
Her sculptures and installations consist of thousands of hand-crafted porcelain shards: a technique that yields a texture both delicate and severe. In some works, large-scale ceramic pieces appear airy, delicate, and fluffy, as if one's breath might break it. In others, Peled's fragments are geometric barbs that mysteriously take on an alluring form: offering a sense of softness despite a sharp actuality.
Peled was born and raised in Israel. She earned her MA at the Royal College of Art (UK). In recent years, her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Sotheby & and Saatchi Gallery (London), Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City) among others. She has been features in Vogue, O Magazine, Elle and other international publications.
Her work is found in many private collections around the world and Museum Collections such as Fuller Craft Museum, The Crocker Art Museum and Frederick R Weisman Art Foundation Museum. The artist lives and works in the United States.
