Artist Statement + Bio

I combine architecture and anatomy in my sculptures to describe the complexity of the human body, mind, and experience. A city is an apt metaphor for this: Like buildings, people are intricate networks of parts (both physically and psychologically); like a city, people can grow, thrive, and decline.

Windows, apartments, skyscrapers, and scaffolding cover the bodies of my figure sculptures; in some, carvings and decals suggest tattoos and murals. Rusty, organic, and skin-like colors juxtapose bright blue, yellow, and white (the colors of Tyvek siding on new buildings). The density of these components in each piece illustrates the human condition as one of growth, accumulation, volatility, and equilibrium.

I enjoy working primarily in clay because it literally, metaphorically, and philosophically speaks to the idea of “building” or of being “built.” When I work, I consider bricks, adobe, and the history of architecture; anatomy, science, and philosophy; the history of figuration in art (especially medieval iconography and sculpted deities); and the use of ‘clay’ in American folk songs as a metaphor for unsteady footing, a lost love, and the inevitability of change.

Ultimately, my work is about finding awe and beauty in the immensity of our existence: The landscape looks fragile, but it holds; vulnerability and resilience fight, constantly seeking balance.





Clara Hoag is an artist and teacher living and working in Houston, TX (USA). Clara has been a resident artist at The Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT) and The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (TX); she has received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Canada), The Puffin Foundation (New Jersey), and the Houston Arts Alliance; and she has shown extensively in group and solo exhibitions in the United States. Clara received two BFAs from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 2009, and she received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia (Athens) in 2013. Clara teaches ceramics as a full-time professor at Houston Community College.