Alex Matisse (MA/NC, b. 1984), Two East Fork Stoneware Vases

Wood fired, salt glazed stoneware with slip decoration, the taller with controlled concentric ring decoration (5 3/4 in.); the second with vegetal slip designs over white (5 in.), both stamped "EAST/FORK/A.MATISSE" to underside, shorter vase with ink signature to underside.

Alex apprenticed in the workshops of North Carolina potters Matt Jones and Mark Hewitt where he gained an appreciation for the traditions of the Anglo-Oriental school of Leach, Hamada, and Cardew as well as the American folk pottery of the southeast and many places between.

Alex describes his work as “a fusion of pre-industrial country traditions in both process and material. It is fired in a large wood burning kiln and made of as many local materials as the chemistry will allow, while still affording me the physical attributes necessary for my aesthetic decisions.”

Good estate condition.