Ceramic Artist Francesca DiMattio Explores the Beauty in Domesticity

At New York gallery Salon 94, two new shows explore the area where art meets design. Domestic Sculpture, which runs through May 7, 2015, at 243 Bowery, features new works by sculptor Francesca DiMattio that reference the history of ceramics in elaborate, collage-like sculptures. Pulling from an encyclopedic range of decorative art influences, from French Sèvres porcelain and Wedgwood figurines to Turkish tiles, DiMattio forces history to collide with tissue-box prints and other modern kitch. Familiar forms come into focus in her complicated compositions, as bits of vases, mugs, chandeliers, and chair legs reveal themselves.  

Meanwhile, at the gallery's Freeman Alley location, artist Anton Alvarez has set up an unorthodox furniture studio, where he will be using a machine of his own design dubbed the Thread-Wrapping Machine to create custom pieces on site. Stay tuned for more on that show as Alvarez's exhibition develops.