Oaxacan-born, Los Angeles-based ceramist Gerardo Monterubbio creates muscular porcelain and terracotta forms sheathed with intricate illustrations. Invoking the narrative sweep of Mexican murals as well as the aesthetics of graffiti and prison tattoos, Monterrubio explores issues of gender identity, ritual, street life, mortality, and the immigrant experience through overlapping images. Puño de Tierra is, in the artist’s words, "a meditation on certain belief systems and rituals related to death." The title, which means "fist full of dirt," is taken from a famous Mexican song. The piece’s interlocking images include references to ancient Mimbres, Zapotec, and Aztec customs and artifacts as well as traditional Oaxacan funerals and pilgrimages, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the artist’s childhood. An uncontrolled green-gray glaze drips down the sides of the vessel-like form, amplifying the piece’s themes of chance and fate.
Staci Steinberger, Associate Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2021
