BOUND ROOTS is a solo show of ceramic works by Tiana Tucker that visually maps the experience of grief and embodies the physical strata that’s left after experiencing loss. In this exhibition, organic forms take shape and distort, visages wax and wane, details are revealed and obscured. Despite growing up without a framework for ritual, over the course of nearly five years, Tucker’s artistic practice became just that– a way to help process her own bereavement and to parse through the emotions and memories that are deeply entangled like a rootbound house plant. 

Working with clay allowed Tucker to conduct an archaeological dig of her own interior world, while simultaneously producing artifacts in an ancient medium that is known to stand the test of time. Small fragments and details abound, larger sweeping forms have traces of the artist’s hand and seem to brim with energy and visceral emotion. Each of her pieces captures and memorializes a feeling,

a permanent snapshot of an ephemeral experience that would otherwise be difficult to witness.

Tiana Tucker is a ceramic artist, illustrator, and instructor, with a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago. She has worked in ceramic production studios as well as community settings like Gasworks NYC, where she is the media coordinator, an instructor, and a studio technician. She constantly pushes the boundaries between form and function by bringing her illustrative and narrative sensibilities into the 3D ceramic realm. Tiana continues to center exploration and experimentation as guiding principles in her practice.