Monumental, colorful and expressive, Matt Wedel’s ceramics revel in what’s possible with clay

In a bright yellow studio nestled in the rolling hills of southeastern Ohio, Matt Wedel (born 1983) builds ideas out of clay. A prolific maker, he regularly pivots between stoneware, earthenware and porcelain, exploring the expressiveness of material and color. Wedel’s focus shifts between figure and flora, representation and abstraction, monumental and intimate, object and drawing—dualities that have a supportive tension rather than being at odds with each other. For Wedel, everything that goes into the making of the object is the work of art.

Matt Wedel: Phenomenal Debris investigates the development and cross-pollination of figuration and landscape in Wedel’s ceramic sculptures, as well as his own psychology and how it transforms both his work and the way he perceives his role as artist, father and global citizen.