Bouke de Vries creates imaginative ceramic sculptures that capture what he describes as the “beauty of destruction.” Repurposing shattered ceramic wares, the London-based Dutch artist challenges notions of perfection and worth by finding new potential in that which is broken. The exhibition features eight new commissions. These include two of his distinctive “memory vessels,” in which the original shapes of broken ceramic wares are re-created in glass to house the shards. One incorporates English Worcester porcelain, a reference to the extensive collection of Worcester in the Bowles Porcelain Gallery. The exhibition also includes three “exploding still lifes,” in which ceramic fragments appear to float in the moment of shattering, as well as a work inspired by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Trained as a porcelain restorer, De Vries seeks to repurpose materials rather than let them go to waste, finding beauty and meaning in that which is damaged.

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