Alice Federico

Alice Federico’s newest collection of pottery dwells on the structure
of her medium as opposed to its ornamentation. Her elegant pieces
are displayed sparsely to showcase how pottery can show articulation
without affection. “For me, it is enough to make simple vessels with
strong graceful profiles.”

Federico regards her newest pieces as a “distillation of tradition”.
She has been influenced by historical pottery, from Oriental pots,
to Greek vases, as well as Italian and French folkware. Her biggest
influence, however, is from English potter Lucie Rie. “I looked at
her pot forms and learned to make wide bellies with small feet, tall
necks with flaming lips. [She] has taught me to look past surface
decoration, to see the form.”

Both critics and collectors alike are drawn to Alice Federico’s
work. In The New Republic, Jed Perl described her interest in
surfaces as having “an old-fashioned natural authority, which she
sets in tension with forms that have a modern vigor and even
aggressiveness.”

Alice Federico has exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the
United States, as well as internationally in France, Japan, and New
Zealand. She has been a summer resident at the Archie Bray
Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, and was chosen by
the juror, Mark Pharis, for the exhibition Pots: Objects of Virtue.
She currently lives and works in New York City and Sullivan County,
New York. This is Alice Federico’s second solo exhibition at the
Gallery.