Lois Samuels’ ceramics invite us to find beauty in imperfection

'I would say that ceramics has always called me because I am a lover of the earth,' says Lois Samuels, the Jamaica-born ceramicist whose exhibition at Los Angeles gallery Twentieth has not so much introduced her as an essential new voice in her field as presented a compelling case for intuitive design.

'I hope my work reflects who I am; a fearless woman who goes with what feels good and never has limitations in her creativity.' It is an audacious creative manifesto but reflective of a woman who has traversed different creative disciplines, continents and life experiences and, through her current practice translates them into vessels, wall hangings and abstract sculptures.

Lois Samuels: ‘See the beauty in a deconstructed construction’

Samuels’ practice is rooted in exploring 'life’s intricacies and magic', and this is a phrase she returns to when speaking of ‘Open’, ‘Portal’ and ‘Wave Medallion’, the three series displayed at Twentieth. However, seeking to give shape to the tangible and intangible has consistently informed her work. 'My first series, “Sankofa”, was like having a dialogue with my past and my present,' she says of the vessels named after the Akan phrase meaning ‘to go back and retrieve’.

Samuels relates that both the making and ideating process were 'very moving in non-verbal ways', allowing her 'to become a conduit'. This notion of being both vessel maker and creative vessel is something she believes is visible in many other ceramicists she admires, notably the late Augusta Savage, whose work she likens to 'touching the spirit'.

Location and memory have played a significant role in Samuels’ making process. She attributes her desire to work with clay as coming from her earliest memories: 'I am Jamaican by birth and I feel it every moment of the day, and when I was younger, I wanted to be a farmer and I think it’s still there in the work.' Moving to California was an important catalyst for her practice. Classes taken at the Throw Clay Studio in downtown Los Angeles, and time spent working from a communal studio in Cypress Park deepened her craft and provided an artistic community in her medium of choice. Two European residencies, at La Meridiana Ceramic School in Tuscany and the Eutopia Art Residency in Greece, gave her the space to distil her methods.

Samuels eschews using wheels in her work, with her practice rooted in experimentation and explorations that are instinctive rather than governed by convention. ‘I think that sometimes when we have so much theory, it [might be] necessary, but it can get too much, instead of creating and allowing [ideas] to flow. I prefer making in a prayerful or a meditative state.'

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Working almost exclusively with dark clay, Samuels does not glaze her pieces; she wants people to engage and 'see the beauty in a deconstructed construction'. She elaborates: 'It is like make-up or a weave, this is what is coming out of me now. And this is just about being real and transparent and in the truest form.'

Her choice of metaphor is reflective of her own lived experiences. 'For the past 32 years, I have called abroad home,' says Samuels, who initially found fame as a model and later, a fashion designer. The segueing of processes and personal biography are further reflected in her use of fabric, which she presses into the clay body itself, folding it sometimes to evoke movement and occasionally adding hand-formed clay beads, resulting in additional texture to the forms. 'Fabric is a big part of my story,' she adds.

In ‘Wave Medallion’, Samuels has included leather, using responsibly sourced hides to fashion a through-line and provide suspension possibilities for the pieces, which can either be affixed to a wall or hung freely. While life’s vicissitudes are referenced in the works, Samuels also seeks to create a design language that is uniquely hers. 'It is so important to me that any other pieces that I make possess a similar sort of technique, and that all my pieces interact as an open conversation.'

With its reputation for championing emerging artists and those with an original point of view, Twentieth is a natural home for Samuels’ work. Recalling first showing her pieces to Stefan Lawrence, the late founder of the gallery, she says: 'I brought [them] in and he was amazed and he just loved them and said, “This is something different that I have never seen before.” I remember his eyes most [because] they just spoke so much.'

He was also adamant that Samuels continue with her unglazed aesthetic. ‘I also brought in a glazed piece, one “Portal” that was glazed on the inside,’ she says. ‘And he said, “No, do it the way you have done here, let’s just keep it in its organic state.”’ Often, an external confirmation will allow an artist to continue to articulate what is true to them.

Samuels’ future plans, which include more time spent in Europe, private commissions and a deeper dive into her “Sankofa” series, are indicative of a practitioner who values candid self-expression, adventure and trusting her subconscious to manifest work that will endure.

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View Samuels' work at Twentieth by appointment via twentieth.net