ARTIST STATEMENT
My work consists of surreal, narrative sculptures, portraying bizarre characters and an abundance of visual metaphors. Within my playful, figurative configurations, I utilize deceptive, illustrative qualities and exaggerative forms to distort the viewer’s perspective and enhance the theatrical nature of these narrative, ceramic works.
My work explores notions of escapism, pleasure, obsession, and consequence. Within this work, moments of ecstasy are shrouded with intrusive thoughts. Imagery of landscapes and figures merge into objects of allegory. My work recognizes the female form as a historically exploited subject of objectification, demonization, and exoticism, and instead approaches the body from an unapologetically feminine, autobiographical perspective. These illustrative, painted figures embody vulnerability and psychological endurance as they sharply contrast their 3-dimensional environments. This visual separation personifies an underlying tension and a sense of estrangement that many of us can relate to.
Being heavily influenced by Pop Surrealism, I sarcastically pair dismal concepts with pleasurable pops of color, playful perspectives, and delicious, visceral ceramic surfaces. In a society where the most deeply personal issues have become politicized beyond our compacity to control, my work laments feelings of disassociation and the desperation to oppress pain, while holding onto fleeting moments of humor and pleasure.
BIO
Hannah Pierce is a ceramic and mixed-media artist based in Escondido, CA. She is also the Associate Professor of Fine Art in Ceramics and 3-D Studio at San Diego Miramar College. She received her MFA in Ceramics from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and her BA in Studio Art at Humboldt State University in California. Hannah has exhibited her work in numerous galleries and museums, including La Luz de Jesus, The Clay Studio PHL, John Natsoulas Gallery, Atta Gallery (Thailand), Nanac Gallery (China), the American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Erie Art Museum, the Canton Museum of Art, the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (South Korea), the Chula Museum (Thailand), and the Bernardaud Foundation (France); As well as art fairs/conferences such as Aqua Arts Miami, Superfine! Arts Fair DC, and NCECA. She was a Resident Artist at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts as a Kiln God Award Recipient (2017), a Resident Artist at Baltimore Clayworks as the Abilities Fellowship Artist (2018-2019), a summer Resident Artist at Studio 740 (2023), a Visiting Artist at the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (2024), and a summer Resident Artist at The Kiln Room in Jingdezhen, China (2025). Hannah has been featured numerous times in Ceramics Now and Ceramics Monthly, including a feature as one of Ceramics Monthly’s 2021 Emerging Artists.