José Sierra: On the Turn

To be on the turn is to be inside transformation: the wheel already in motion, the form not yet fixed. At the wheel, change does not necessarily come through rupture, but through attention, pressure, and response—too much force and the form collapses; too little and nothing happens. The continual act of centering and re-centering, of working with movement rather than trying to hold it still. This work emerges from such a moment, both in my own making and in the world around me. Something is turning. The old forms are giving way, even as what comes next remains unnamed. Todavía las cosas carecen de nombres. We are not waiting at the edge of transformation. We are already inside it. José Sierra was born in Mérida, Venezuela in 1975 and introduced to ceramics at the University of the Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, where he learned the basic skills of mixing clay, glazes, and wheel throwing. In 1996, Sierra began working professionally as an artist; by 2000, he was able to build his first American studio in Iowa. A decade later Sierra moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he maintains his studio today. Sierra's work is included in the collections of the Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID; University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN; Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, NM; University Art Collection, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA; Kamm Teapot Foundation, Sparta, NC; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX; University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA; Central College, Pella, IA; Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, KS; and in numerous private collections in the United States and Latin America.