Ken Price

Ken Price subverted traditions of functional ceramics, making clay sculptures that undermined distinctions between craft and fine art. He experimented with biomorphic shapes, vibrant colors, and sleek finishes as he produced abstract, cartoon-inflected works that look alternately scatalogical, sexual, and proterozoic. Price, in fact, took inspiration from erotica, geology, and traditional Mexican pottery, and his sculptures at times bubble, curve, ooze, and crack. Rather than glazing his ceramics, Price applied numerous coats of acrylic, then sanded each piece to achieve glossy surfaces of variegated color; this practice situates him within the Finish Fetish movement, which included artists such as Larry Bell and John McCracken. Today, Price is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the National Gallery of Australia, among other institutions; on the secondary market, his sculptures have commanded six figures. Price also produced paintings and prints that depict flattened scenes of acid-hued domestic interiors and urban architecture.