Vanesa Montiveros

Lives and works in Maplewood, NJ

Artist statement

My work explores movement, balance, and organic form through handbuilt ceramics. I am drawn to forms that appear to be in transition: folding, bending, stacking, or shifting between stability and instability. Working intuitively with stoneware, I allow pressure, gravity, and the marks of my hands to remain visible. Rather than pursuing symmetry or perfection, I preserve irregularities that reveal the process of making and give each form its own sense of movement. My visual language is influenced by natural formations and landscapes: layered rock, eroded surfaces, cliffs, waves, and the slow transformations created by geological processes. I translate these references loosely, using them to explore rhythm, tension, negative space, and the relationship between individual forms. I am interested in the point at which a form feels both intentional and unresolved—structured yet organic, still yet carrying the suggestion of movement.

Artwork