Eva Zethraeus: Selected works, 2025-2026
My work as a ceramic artist is deeply rooted in an exploration of nature’s processes — its capacity for growth, transformation, decay, and regeneration. I am fascinated by the complex dualities that define the natural world: the balance between fragility and resilience, chaos and order, beauty and destruction. Through the medium of ceramics, I seek to create sculptural forms that inhabit this tension, embodying the subtle, often unpredictable forces that shape both organic and human-made systems.
The foundation of my practice lies in an intimate relationship with clay. I am drawn to its primal, tactile nature — its ability to record every touch, every manipulation, every intention. Clay is both immediate and meditative; it demands physical engagement while inviting a state of reflection. Working with this material, I enter into a dialogue with process and time, where the outcomes are never fully controllable. Clay responds to pressure, moisture, and heat in ways that mirror the mutability of life itself. In embracing these inherent uncertainties, I allow the material to assert its own voice within the work.
My sculptural language emerges through a combination of handthrowing, layering, and assembling smaller parts into complex structures. Many of my forms suggest cellular life, coral reefs, fungal networks, or imaginary botanical organisms. They are neither strict representations of nature nor purely abstract inventions — rather, they inhabit a space in between, where the familiar and the alien intersect.
Nature’s double aspect — its beauty and its threat — has always captivated me. My sculptures reflect not only nature’s visible surfaces but its internal, often hidden structures. Growth patterns in biology are not random; they are governed by underlying mathematical principles like fractals and repetition. Yet despite their order, they allow for mutation, variation, and failure. I find a profound poetry in this interplay between strict structure and wild deviation, and I strive to embed this same dynamic into my work.
Themes of transformation and the passage of time are constant undercurrents in my practice. I am interested in the ways that matter reshapes itself, slowly or violently, over time. My forms often seem caught mid-process — swelling, collapsing, branching outward. They suggest organisms caught between flourishing and decay. This ambiguity — are they growing, or dying? — is important to me. It reflects not only ecological realities but also deeper existential rhythms of loss, resilience, and renewal.
Beyond the purely formal and material aspects, my work also addresses broader questions about humanity’s relationship with the environment. We are part of nature, yet we often experience it as something separate or even subordinate. In an era of ecological uncertainty, the fragility and interdependence of living systems have become increasingly urgent concerns. Through the intimate scale and tactile presence of ceramics, I hope to evoke a sense of connection and empathy toward these larger cycles — to remind viewers of both the beauty and the precarity inherent in the world we inhabit.
Over the years, I have developed a personal visual language rooted in a close observation of natural forms, yet filtered through imagination and material experimentation. I often work in series, allowing ideas to evolve organically across multiple pieces. In some works, the surfaces are left raw and textured, emphasizing the tactile origins of the clay; in others, glazes create unexpected surfaces, introducing iridescence, opacity, or fragility. Color is used sparingly and deliberately, often suggesting mineral, aquatic, or biological references rather than vivid spectacle.
Although each sculpture can stand alone, I am increasingly interested in how groups of works can create environments — immersive spaces where multiple forms interact like ecosystems. In exhibition contexts, I often install works in relation to one another, creating subtle narratives of proximity, interaction, and mutual influence.
