Eric Serritella

Eric Serritella is a full-time artist known for specializing in hand-carved sculptures transforming clay into birch, charred and weathered logs. Clay found him in 1996 when he took a hobby pottery class to find a new creative outlet and bring more balance to a busy corporate career.

“I expected to simply discover an enjoyable pastime. Instead, creating art dug its way into my very core.”

He began a functional pottery production business in effort to follow clay's calling and to bring a new spirit and satisfaction to his work life.

Serritella has a BA in Communication from Ithaca College. He also studied art history there and in London. His primary applied art training came in the form of two artist residencies studying with Ah Leon and masters in Taiwan. It was there that he was taken with the historic Yixing teapots, introduced to the Japanese wabi philosophy, and began his trompe l’oeil explorations.

As a result, Serritella’s one-of-a-kind sculptures are internationally recognized for their hyper-realism, and have been exhibited, awarded and collected on five continents for their exquisite organic design and incredibly lifelike textures. They are included in many permanent museum collections including among others The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Mint Museum.

Serritella has contributed to over 140 exhibitions and has been represented at some of the world’s top art and design shows including TEFAF Maastricht (Netherlands), Frieze NY, Design Miami/Basel (Switzerland), Design Miami (Florida), The Salon: Art + Design (NY), Masterpiece London, SOFA Chicago and The Smithsonian Craft Show.

A 2013 cataloged solo show at Jason Jacques Gallery in New York City led to additional international recognition. He was honored by the James Renwick Alliance as the 2016 Distinguished Artist in ceramics at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. And in 2017 was featured as the solo artist with Jason Jacques Gallery as the first ceramics gallery to be invited to the prestigious Frieze NY art fair.

His 2018 solo show at Jason Jacques Gallery was recommended in the NY Times and he has received positive acclaim by Architectural Digest and renowned art critic/historian Daniella Ohad. Works have appeared on the covers of AmericanStyle and Pottery Making Illustrated, and in the pages of Architectural Digest, Ceramics Monthly, American Art Collector, Art & Antiques, Modern, NICHE, American Craft, Clay Times, The Crafts Report, Design 360º (China), Ceramic Art (Taiwan), Lark Books’ 500 Teapots, Volume 2, as well as in several other books and calendars on ceramic art.

Each piece Serritella makes begins as a blank piece of clay where work begins spontaneously and intuitively without the use of wood samples or models. He uses wheel throwing, slab building and hand building techniques to create his expressive forms. All the texture and details are hand carved and no molds are used. After applying ceramic oxides for accent colors, the pieces are fired to over 2,100º F.

During the pandemic he added glass artwork to his repertoire. These colorful new works serve as conduits to emotion and connection through inquiry, recognition and familiarity. Vessels link humanity and nature as timelessly inseparable. They channel nature’s private stories so secluded voices and soul-singings are heard. Each is created first in clay then cast in glass, often using pate de verre for its alluring textures and depth.

He says, “The exploration of color and transparency of glass have opened an entirely new and exciting world to me after two decades of my primary works being created in clay. The blending of vibrant colors, distressed textures and transparencies into flowing lines and movement is where I am having the most fun.” While he still  continues to work in clay, glass has become an exciting new focus within his repertoire and a material with years and years of creative exploration to be enjoyed and shared. This new body of work which he calls Nouveau Gothic Zen integrates a combination of his Eastern and Western influences.

For more information on Eric, visit www.ericserritella.com