Jonathan Kusnerek
MFA | Ceramics
ARTIST BIO
Jonathan Kusnerek is an interdisciplinary artist inspired by wild, strange, and magical things. He grew up in Pensacola, Florida, where he developed a love for nature and the outdoors. After being introduced to ceramics at Pensacola State College, he continued his education and earned a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jonathan enjoys music, dancing, long walks, and baking.
ARTIST STATEMENT
This body of work began as a way to process the ever-changing tides of my experience as a queer person. The objects here are about joy, sorrow, yearning, mischief, hope, fear, and the sometimes indistinguishable pair, excitement and anxiety. These are the complex emotions of navigating relationships, love, loss, and grief. The wall installation is a collection of important symbols, elements, and iconography in my narrative. The circular composition and moveable parts create a simultaneous narrative where past, present, and potential futures play out all at once.
The objects on pedestals draw influence from reliquaries, which can be characterized as a vessel or container that houses a relic. While there are a few different kinds of relics, I am most interested in what is considered a “contact relic.” These are fragments of materials imbued with energy by their contact with a sacred person or place. The “relics” that I have created these vessels for all relate to a memory or place. The narrative and symbolic imagery allude to the intangible materials bound to these objects.
Nature of Longing
Exhibition View
Transmutation // Heaven Is Here
Porcelain, glaze, overglaze, glass and mirror fragments, restlessness, change, rebirth, searching, feeling of holding a small bird, seeing from a great height | 5” t x 4.5” w x 3” d | 2022
Of Things in Dreams
Porcelain, glaze, overglaze, china paint, omens | 28" diameter | 2022
My Desire Being
Board, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, mischief, rebirth, desire, satisfaction of battles won | 7” x 5” | 2022
A Knight In Shining Armor
Board, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, conflicting feelings, strife, mischief, admiration, irreverence | 7” x 5” | 2022
Kin
Porcelain, glaze, gold, china paint, love, hope, searching, belonging, the love of the family you choose, fairy dust | 16” t x 10” w x 6.5” | 2022
Wish that you were here...
Porcelain, glaze, gold, china paint, tears, loss, pain, bittersweet memories, terrible memories, conflict of heart, veeeeery sloooooow healing | 10” t x 6” w x 6” d | 2022
He Loves Me Not
Porcelain, glaze, gold, china paint, wishing, hoping, yearning, wondering if there is a chance, heartbreak, healing, picking up the pieces, and beginning again | 24” t x 9” w 8” d | 2022
Smalltown Boy
Porcelain, glaze, gold, china paint, regret, fear of what might be, making peace with things left unsaid, hope, gratitude, forgiveness, the record of final heartbeats of a loved one | 26”t x 11”w x 7”d | 2022
Smalltown Boy (detail)
Porcelain, glaze, gold, china paint, regret, fear of what might be, making peace with things left unsaid, hope, gratitude, forgiveness, the record of final heartbeats of a loved one | 26”t x 11”w x 7”d | 2022
Lover’s Eye
Porcelain, glaze, gold, china paint, admiration, desire, hope, longing, the feeling of his hand in mine | 6”t x 4”w x 2” d | 2022
Nature of Longing
Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, china paint, gold, excitement, mischief, the beginning of a journey | 9’ diameter | 2022
Nature of Longing (detail 1)
Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, china paint, gold, excitement, mischief, the beginning of a journey | 9’ diameter | 2022
Nature of Longing (detail 2)
Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, china paint, gold, excitement, mischief, the beginning of a journey | 9’ diameter | 2022
