Maria Porges

Maria Porges Biography

Since the late ‘80s, Maria Porges has pursued dual practices as both artist and writer. A graduate of Yale University (BA) and the University of Chicago (MFA), her exhibition career of sculpture and works on paper has spanned 30 years of solo and group shows at galleries, museums, and alternative spaces. Her critical writing has been published in Artforum, Art in America, Sculpture, Squarecylinder.com, the New York Times Book Review, and a host of now-defunct art magazines. She teaches in the graduate program at California College of the Arts.

Maria Porges Statement

Each of the forms I conjure up incorporates elements from multiple cultures, in a sort of exquisite corpse/mashup of shapes and purposes. Sung Dynasty and Meso-American. Art Deco and Caddoan (one of the native cultures of the North America). Dutch and Moche. Many years have gone by since my apprenticeship to a sociopathic potter in Japan and the decade of ceramic practice that followed, during which I refined my skills with that material.  But, well, it really is like riding a bicycle. Your body never forgets what it knows. 

These pieces are all hand built, sometimes using press molds as a point of departure-- all of which is satisfyingly difficult for me to do. I confess to taking pleasure in other people being able (or not) to identify the source of a shape, a handle or a foot. In the end, though, these are neither old nor new; practical nor magical, but vessels for the imagination.