Highlighting Harris Deller: Delicate and Powerful Fine Art is Made from the Hand to the Heart

Artist list

Harris Deller

Harris Deller earned a Bachelor’s of Art from California State University, Northridge and later, a Master’s of Fine Art from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work has been featured in more than 100 group exhibitions and in over 15 solo exhibits throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. Today, his work is represented in many esteemed collections, including those in the Museum of Art and Design in New York and deYoung Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Like a personal talisman or artifact, Deller’s sculptural objects are at once precious that grow to extraordinary and complex. The artist creates tactile expressions from an abstract vocabulary, as he utilizes line, form and space to explore the limits and bounds of his field.

For Patina, the artist shares his Suppressed Volume Series I. Volume and shape become indelible themes throughout the artist’s work of art. The space within is suppressed, as Deller delights in the anonymity of living on both a 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional plane. Beginning with cone or cylinder slabs of porcelain clay, he shapes its pale material into a trapezoidal figure. Two concave planes meet, forming a multifaceted treasure and a feast for the eyes. Pattern prevails across the piece as line and texture are incised along its surfaces. Oftentimes, Deller’s ornate compositions align with an intimate condition of life, be it a record of time and emotion or as palpable as the representation of a thumbprint. Dark glaze appears in curves, lines and shapes that embolden the form in pure contrast to the greater, fair-colored whole.
 
I am interested in human contradictions, duality, paradox, juxtaposition, yin and yang. Using shapes, forms, colors and textures, I am drawn to abstraction as a way to uncover and make visual feelings and emotions. I use patterns to activate & mark time, and to record human activity. I use glaze to imply movement, passion, and both are used to imply water and wind. My desire is to make vessels that are alluring, elicit a reaction and perhaps present a paradox.
/Harris Deller