Axel’s hosts haunting works by ceramic artist Susan Wilson

March 4, 2024  |  By Waterbury Roundabout 

'Hands and Voices' sculpture by Susan Wilson. Courtesy photo

Next week, a new exhibition opens at Axel’s Frame Shop and Gallery in Waterbury featuring ceramic works by veteran artist Susan Wilson of Putney, Vermont. 

The show opens Saturday, March 16, with a reception, 5-7 p.m., and runs until April 27. 

With a talent for bridging solitude and community, Wilson creates mysterious figurative work, each telling a story. 

“From the wisdom of ancestors and the past presences in her life to the urgent NOW of so many voices, she weaves into her figurative sculpture stories about being alone and together, about yearnings and unanswered questions, about reaching out and retreating into solitude, about fear, pain, and hope,” gallery owner Whitney Aldrich describes in announcing the new show. 

“Rather than specific portraits, Susan makes archetypal figures over simplified three-dimensional molds. As she rolls, pinches, pulls, and scratches into the clay, the person emerges while she works the detail of an eye, lips, and a nose,” Aldrich writes. “Those who emerge remind her of the people she has known and whose stories she wishes to tell. …By telling these stories, she is trying to find her place in this world.”

Wilson will be fielding questions and sharing stories at an opening reception planned for Saturday, March 16, from 5 to 7 p.m. Light snacks and refreshments. Free. 

More information online at axelsgallery.com.