Stephanie Kantor

bio

Stephanie Kantor is a visual artist whose practice explores idiosyncratic traditions, historic objects, and identity. She creates whimsical mixed-media installations where ceramic sculptures are the focus. Kantor received her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (2015) and BFA from Penn State University (2009). Kantor was a Black Cube Nomadic Museum Fellow in 2016 and has completed prestigious residencies at The Clay Studio, Belger Crane Yard Studios, and RedLine Contemporary Arts Center. She has exhibited internationally at Salon Acme (CDMX), Paragraph Gallery (MO), Nerman Museum (KS), Sala Diaz (TX), BMOCA (CO), and Bunker Projects (PA). Kantor is based out of Philadelphia and teaches 3D Art at The Haverford School.

artist statement

The ceramic vessel is the central theme in my studio practice. I am interested in how vessels can be vehicles for communicating stories, feelings, and metaphors. I’m fascinated by the rich history of ceramics. I use these historic inspirations as a starting point, yet many things change and evolve in my process. My vessels often lose their function and I then empathize with their quirkiness and absurdity all the more. I tend to work in series, and the more objects that I make, the more they digress from my original intention. This speaks to the importance of intuition in practice; practice past, current practice, and the submission to where that practice will lead. Practice does not always make perfect, but certainly it does reveal, and my hands are equal to my mind as my thumbprint becomes a marker of that experience.

My work is predominantly project-based, the content and concepts shift with each new body. Depending on location, interests, and surroundings, I draw on both mundane and meaningful experiences to inspire the content. In the past, I’ve explored concepts such as beauty, the sublime, ornamentation and decoration, artifice, nostalgia, and memory. The results are often mixed media installations that incorporate paintings, wallpaper, fabric, drawings, and furniture to add specificity and content to how the vessels are interpreted. These become self sustained worlds that allows viewers to connect to my personal, idiosyncratic point of view.