bend

In her latest body of work, "bend", ceramicist Clara Hoag creates pieces that reflect the human condition and the lived urban experience. With her sculptures, Hoag builds the parts, combining them with construction adhesive, epoxy, and mortar. She integrates architectural motifs into bodily shapes—segmented and layered, organic and geometric—that are caught among dense scaffolding and rubble. Each sculpture illustrates the balance between health and sickness; freedom and oppression; vulnerability and resilience; and sanity and madness. Collectively, the figures speak to human strength and perseverance: the landscape looks fragile, but it holds. Clara Hoag earned two BFAs from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 2009 and received an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia (Athens) in 2013. In 2018, Hoag had a solo exhibition, "A SUM OF PARTS", at Gallery 100 in the Silos at Sawyer Yards. She has been a resident artist at The Archie Bray Foundation and the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. She has also participated in a number of national group shows and has received grants from the Houston Arts Alliance, the Puffin Foundation, and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Hoag currently teaches Ceramics at Houston Community College.