elaine buss
bio
Elaine Buss grew up in the wide-open prairie fields of Lively Grove, Illinois. Her work explores ambiguity and the nondescript, specifically in relation to the sensory, ineffable, and intangible experience of inhabiting a human body. She earned an MFA from Ohio State University (2018) and a BFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2010). Her work has garnered multiple awards including an Inspiration Grant (ArtsKC), Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist Award, The International Award for Visual and Performing Arts (Ohio State), and an ArtistInc Fellowship (Mid-America Arts Alliance). Elaine’s work is held in collections such as Honos Art (Italy), Belger Collection (Missouri), Baggs Library (Ohio), Potamkin Collection (Florida) and C.R.E.T.A.Rome (Italy). Elaine is an Assistant Professor at Kansas City Art Institute in the Foundation Department and a 2022-2024 Charlotte Street Foundation Arts Resident.
artist statement
My forms are distillations of the formal qualities from historical utilitarian objects, such as grinding stones, water pipes, and building fragments. Anthropological sources provide a place of empathy with past humans and a way to understand my own humanity more thoroughly. I choose sources that reveal direct logic, touch, or process and use the same visual language in my own forms. The resulting sculptures are not meant to allude to any specific origin or culture, but rather remain anonymous and elusive.
My forms are met with an alchemical approach to melting raw ceramics materials together in the kiln, such as glass frits, metallic oxides, and minerals. In these combinations, I achieve haptic qualities that are familiar, yet unplaceable. My fascination with materials and transformative substances reflects a concern for my own materiality.
Harmonious curves, balance, and symmetry often dominate my pieces’ formal qualities. I play with the tension between the familiar and unfamiliar. This otherness feels indiscernible; I am fascinated by the space between knowing and searching. I find mystery to be one of the most compelling emotions, and I try to arrive at a sense instead of a certainty in my work.
exhibitions
