Gifford Myers

Gifford Myers is not one of your old-school potters. Trained initially as an architect and operating ostensibly as a ceramist since the early 1970s, his work has encompassed painting, public art, and sculptural work. He is known for his use of lead, wood, bronze, aluminum, fiberglass, industrial tiles, and found objects, in addition to his experimental engagement with clay. Stylistically, his work runs a restless gamut from finish-fetish minimalism to cartoonish funk. Villa Living at a Price You Can Afford falls more into the latter category, recalling Robert Arneson’s signal Alice House series of ceramic depictions of his tract home from the late 1960s, while also referencing David Hockney’s iconic colorist portrayals of the Los Angeles landscape—particularly its swimming pools. But Myers’ version of the Southern California good life has a sardonic political edge that would never enter Hockney’s field of vision.