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On View in West Bend

Kelly Jean Ohl

Memory Of Times Past

January 24–April 12

MOWA | West Bend

About the Exhibition

Although her pieces resemble natural elements like seed pods, eroded fossils, oceanic creatures, or microscopic life, her intent is to create objects rooted in the material world yet open to interpretation—familiar yet mysterious

 

Kelly Jean Ohl’s work begins with the quiet rhythm of domestic work. She collects the textures, marks, and patterns made by household tools—many gifted from her grandmothers—to impress a history of touch into soft clay. After hand-carving, the surfaces are burnished, sanded, stained, and fired multiple times, allowing the clay to develop a tactile richness that rewards close looking. Oxides, slips, and natural materials create patterned layers, much like the growth rings of a tree or the shifting layers of the Earth. These humble forms and artifacts become the starting point for ceramic sculptures that explore memory, nature, and the subtle forces that shape us.

Although her pieces resemble natural elements like seed pods, eroded fossils, oceanic creatures, or microscopic life, her intent is to create objects rooted in the material world yet open to interpretation—familiar yet mysterious. Drawn to the meditative intimacy of hand-building, each of Ohl’s pieces develop slowly, an amalgamation of marks and revisions that mirror the memory of times past.

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