In his first museum exhibition, renowned potter Adam Silverman created a series of installations ranging from displays of his pots in various settings to video pieces. The theme that ran through Adam Silverman: Clay and Space was the relation of art to nature. Silverman brings to his pottery both an architectural sensibility and a keen response to natural forms and materials—the spiral growth of sea shells, the textures of coral and barnacles, the rhythms of the tide, waves and seaweed, clay and wood.

The exhibition coincided with the publication by Skira Rizzoli of the first book on Silverman’s work, Adam Silverman Ceramics. “Adam Silverman’s pottery thrives on duality,” writes artist Shepard Fairey in the book’s foreword. “ Beautiful and ugly, refined and unpredictable, resolved and organic . . . His pots and sculptures are a harmony of contrasts in the search for perfect imperfection.”

Silverman’s passion for clay began 25 years ago at the University of Colorado. He continued his education at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied architecture, art, and design. He moved to Los Angeles in 1988 and practiced architecture before co-founding X-Large and X-Girl clothing. He has worked full-time as a potter since 2002, exhibiting widely in the U.S. and Japan. Since 2008 he has been studio director of Heath Ceramics.

Exhibition support was generously provided by the Draper Family Foundation Fund, the McBeth Foundation, Orange County Community Foundation, Paul and Sara Heeschen, Vin and Erica Di Bona in honor of RISD, Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Pamela Banks, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Jay Bauer and Eileen Berman, Kathy Watt, John Beug, and anonymous donors.

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