Mike Cerv

bio

Mike Cerv received his Bachelors of Fine Arts with a focus in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2017, was an artist-in-residence at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY, and received his Masters of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University in 2021. He recently moved back to Kansas City and is currently an Artist in Residence at the Kansas City Clay Guild. Cerv works predominantly in ceramic, wood, and metal but often includes other materials in his work. He has educated both children and adults in a variety of ceramic, wood, and digital processes.

artist statement

“Vibrantly enamored by their dynamic colors and patterns, my work strives to respectfully adopt and adapt aesthetic qualities from Russian and Levant art. This blending parallels my journey towards the rediscovery of my identity, both culturally and internally, as an adopted person whose heritage was hidden. As an adult, I’ve discovered some of that history: I am Russian and Lebanese; I am the son of an artist and mathematician; I am the only of their children. Unsteady on how it affects my interpersonal life, I craft vessels that implore these “new” identities with a confidence for their conjunction I have yet to find. To achieve this, I ornament each object with bilevel patterns pulling directly from the interactivity of Zellige and the network of lines it creates. 

Like the haze around my biological ancestry, the fired surfaces of my wares drape a veil of color and fog onto the designs pressed into them. Despite this, slip rivulets, clay burrs, and other artifacts of making endure as vestiges of where this journey takes my mind from day to day. Pulling from bright Soviet propaganda dishware, I accent the low relief surfaces of my vessels with colorful inlay glazework. The pierced templates I use to support my construction of each slab built object leave a reflection in low relief. Made of tar paper, these laser cut templates build a bridge between modern production methods and traditional ceramic techniques. With this mechanic as a foundation, my studio practice centers around play within process.”

exhibitions