My name is Alejandra Almuelle, I’m a studio ceramic artist based in Austin, Tx. I have maintained my practice dedicated to both the functional and sculptural aspects of ceramics.

The focus of my work is the human form. The body not only carries our genetic memory, but it is the biological archive of experience. We are historically shaped and conditioned by the environment and by the same socioeconomic structures we have participated in creating. The human body is both witness and event, as well as the field where these two aspects are at play. My work points to this juncture. Through the human form in its different iterations, I shift attention beyond form to what is implicit: the event, the experience that has taken place.

I hand build using slabs of clay. This technique allows sculpting simultaneously from inside and outside the form. This process reflects the interplay between the body and the world. A world that expresses itself in our biology, and a body that leaves its imprint on the world it inhabits. The slab of clay becomes the metaphorical ground where that interaction takes shape. Clay, loaded with intelligence, has history. It is malleable but it pushes back. Open to be shaped, it asks for the same, having a bearing on the outcome of the work.