Ryze(Zewei) Xu (He/Him) is a ceramicist originally from Tangshan, China. Ryze received BFA in ceramics from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado Boulder.
In the studio, his work plays with the material’s responsiveness: its ability to be built and to break, to respond to gravity, to succumb to heat. The form is built by stacking and layering. Tools of the process become the artifact. Objects are shifted through different material lenses.
In the studio, the ceramic process works as a metaphor for and a reminder of the unique position of being a young first-generation immigrant. By paying attention to the failures, the shards, the leftovers, and the underlying structures, the ceramic process becomes more fluid and malleable. Clay grants the opportunity to rearticulate, to explore, and to embrace the potential of immigrant experiences, of being “in between”.
