Johannes Nagel
Lives and works in Halle, Germany
Born in 1979 in Jena, Germany
“What is the function of vessels today? What can they contain? I have hardly ever thought about flowers.”
Monumental, improvised, harmonious, inappropriate, fragmentary, deconstructed… A thousand and one nuances of vases make up Johannes Nagel's work. By reinterpreting the classical architecture of the vessel, the artist transcends the timeless debate between form and function; between controlled gesture and spontaneous creation; between rigor and improvisation.
It is the ceramic as functional, domestic, and decorative art that he questions: his compositions, eclectic yet instantly recognizable, resist their vocation of "containing." Without aiming for excellence, Nagel primarily seeks to highlight the process of form development. Hand-carved from wet sand, his molds are imperfect spaces into which he pours liquid porcelain, giving birth to unique, spontaneous works rich with a rare poetic strength.
Starting October 30, 2024, the Daguet Bresson Gallery will host a unique exhibition dedicated to his work.
