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n “Playing with Mud”, Ghada Amer’s first solo exhibition in Mallorca, now on view at Kewenig Gallery, the groundbreaking artist presents a series of ceramics and new works on canvas that engage themes of eroticism, femininity and gender stereotypes, which Amer has long confronted. Since her first sewn paintings were exhibited over two-decades ago, featuring beautifully embroidered images of women in various acts of erotic pleasure, Amer has not shied from pushing the boundaries, not only about what painting can be, but with art history and woman’s place within it. With her new ceramic works at Kewenig, she continues to push boundaries, this time with the language of ceramics itself, merging this tactile medium with her ideas and inquiries around Painting (with a capital ‘P’), and fusing abstraction and figuration in unexpected ways.
The artist fell in love with ceramics in part, as a new way of exploring ideas of painting without having to sew. “I started ceramics because I wanted to learn how to make my own prototype and develop my bronze and stainless-steel sculptures…Then I discovered a whole new medium and fell in love with it too. [Ceramics] allows me to paint without having to sew,” Amer explains.
