Material and Meaning
Earthenware, Stoneware, and Porcelain from The Wolfsonian–FIU Collection
Material and Meaning presents modern ceramics from the collection of The Wolfsonian–FIU to reveal the expressive and functional potentials of the three major types of clay.
The exhibition shows how designers and artists have adapted the fixed material qualities of earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain to achieve diverse outcomes.
From elaborately ornamented Art Nouveau vases to utilitarian salt-glazed stoneware, and from whimsical figurines to propaganda porcelains, modern ceramics have played a role in intimate, domestic spaces, in architecture, and in the realms of politics and ideology.