Showing: November 2 – 30, 2019

Reception: Saturday November 9, 5 – 7 pm

This body of artwork explores the concept of action, motion and tension with the human figure in unfamiliar circumstances. I make sculptures that place the human body in situations that are peculiar and out of the ordinary. Setting the familiar in unfamiliar positions creates imagery of something unique and engaging. I have made several sculptures where parts of the body have contact with boxes, bowls and vessels. Many of the pieces have the figure held or contained within the form. The image of the body interacts with the form of the sculpture as if the figure is manipulating the clay material that it is made of. I explore the idea of having the figure emerge or come forth from the form, evoking a sense of physical movement and force. 

Biography

Ofra Fisher was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1981 and moved to the US at the age of one. She and her family made their way to California in 1989. She received her BFA from UC Santa Cruz in 2004 with a focus on sculpture, drawing and painting. Ofra explored different avenues in her art practice over the years and began to make ceramic sculpture when she moved to Berkeley in 2007. She decided to focus solely on ceramics in 2018. Ofra searches for ways to engage viewers through her art. She is inspired by the human form and finding new ways to represent it. She begins her process by sketching ideas on paper, using the ones that excite her as the inspiration for her hand-built ceramic sculptures. Ofra served as co-founder and co-director of FM, a shared studio space and art gallery in Oakland, from 2009 to 2018. She helped manage the gallery and workspace and would often curate gallery exhibitions. Ofra has exhibited her sculptures alongside other artists around the Bay Area over the years and has a current solo exhibition at Abrams Claghorn in Albany, California.