Anca Ion
Ceramic sculpture
I was born in Bucharest, but since 2003 I have been living in El Vendrell, Spain.
I am a Spanish informative craftswoman potter from Pottery’s family, issued by the Generalitat of Catalonia and I am also graduated in Contemporary Applied Arts, Fire Arts in ceramics and glass at Massana school and Universitat Autònoma from Barcelona.
My alternative figurative sculptures explore the relationship between the persons and the nature. Through my artistic work, I invite the public to reflect and act for a better environment and in concordance with the Anthropocene, the impact of human beings on the Earth.
My pieces have been part of contemporary exhibitions in Spain, Portugal, Korea and Denmark.
I have been finalist in recent competitions such as: European Ceramic Context 2024 Bornholm Denmark, (September 2024), the XIII International Ceramic Competition of El Vendrell ( November 2024) and selected for the Biennale Nature Art Cube Exhibition” (August 2024) in Korea, the XVI International Artistic Ceramics Biennial of Aveiro (Portugal 2023), the XI Biennale International of Ceramic” Talavera City” 2023 Spain, Furthermore, I was awarded with the Mention of Honour for the work “Las Kokedamas” at N.A.C.E. Unique Piece Contest 2021, Spain and with the 1st Prize for the work “Substrats” at the 16th National Award of Ceramic “Ciutat de Castelló” (December,2022). My work belongs to the National Heritage of Castellon.
Regarding my work, my goal is to express as much as I can my imagination about nature.
I create intricate sculptures in stoneware and porcelain which are inspired by microscopic studies of moss, leaves, branches and tree barks. I make use of Sciart to smudge the division between science and art. As methodology, I often go trekking to the mountains or fields, I take samples or take pictures. Later, in my studio I analyses the types of moss, tree, plant, to reproduce and transform it into a ceramic sculpture.
My sculptures are like something out of a fantasy! Roots growing into a cylinder made on the pottery wheel or shapes exploding into different forms of the nature like sponges, smalls living beings, branch and trees transformed in little monsters. My historical references are Greek mythology, the archaeology, the observation of the nature. I am particularly fascinated by the organic shapes, but I also like the geometric ones because they talk about the relation between the nature and mathematic. The aesthetics of the work is to make visible that normally is invisible in the nature. Clay is used to recreate this shapes and texture inspired by nature, that suggest movement and motion for the nature.
In my work, I am looking for originality, fragility, and textures that people can see in nature. I use high temperatures materials, stoneware, porcelain, clays that reach a temperature of 1250º. In almost all my works, I use pigments and oxides.