Client: Private collector

Overview

By Courtney Mattison
2022-2023
Glazed stoneware + porcelain
16’-10” wide x 7’-11” high x ≤ 0’-6” deep (including 2 window widths)
Private collection, Fishers Island, NY
Photos by the Artist

By celebrating the fragile beauty of species native to Long Island Sound, this glazed stoneware and porcelain wall relief aims to inspire viewers to cherish and protect the marine environment and recall our immemorial reliance on its resources. Porcelain eelgrass fronds and shells share a fragility with the living creatures that inspired their designs, compelling observers to look but not touch. One thousand, one hundred and thirty-five hand-crafted ceramic forms are glazed in a neutral color palette to mimic the intricate structures of oysters, barnacles, mussels and other marine invertebrates swirling among algae and granite beach pebbles that appear to have been bleached by sun and time.

Goals

This site-specific wall relief was commissioned for the living room wall of a collector's home. It was designed in response to the bright, light-filled space with a view of Fishers Island Sound just outside.

Process

Artwork commissioned by private collector for installation in their residence. Artist worked with Client for design approval, budget and installation logistics. Artist designed, fabricated and installed artwork.

Additional Information

Internationally recognized artist and ocean advocate, Courtney Mattison, hand-crafts intricate and large-scale ceramic sculptural works that visualize climate change through the fragile beauty of marine life. Her background in marine conservation science informs her work, which has been commissioned for permanent collections including those of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and The Seabird Hotel in Oceanside, CA. Her exhibition history includes solo shows at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the U.S. Department of Commerce headquarters, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and ICA San Diego/North, where she was Artist in Residence. Curated group exhibitions include “Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” at the MAD Paris and “Beijing 2022” at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in China. In 2020, the United Nations Postal Administration published Mattison’s work on a stamp to commemorate Earth Day. Born in 1985, Mattison received an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree in marine ecology and ceramic sculpture from Skidmore College in 2008 and a Master of Arts degree in environmental studies from Brown University with thesis coursework at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. She lives and works in San Francisco.