ABOUT MIMI

Mimi Bardagjy (b. Jersey City, NJ) is a ceramic artist whose porcelain pieces are sculptural yet reference the vessel. Mimi trained as an apprentice to June Kapos, a production potter, which gave her a strong technical grounding in both hand-building and wheel throwing. For over 40 years, Mimi has maintained a dedicated ceramics practice, exploring the natural range of clays and their associated glazes, as well as a variety of firing techniques, from pit-firing and raku, to low-temperature earthenware and majolica, mid-range oxidation, and the high-fired reduction and soda firings she employs in her current work. These mediums yielded different expressions of embodiment, leading her to work solely in porcelain. This evolution was accompanied by a change in focus; Mimi found her practice shifting from wheel-thrown functional pieces to hand-built sculptural work. Her intensive training in the techniques and esthetics of clay continues to influence her work, which remains vessel oriented. Following a recent workshop with porcelain artist Jennifer McCurdy, Mimi developed new ways of making: pinching, manipulating, and carving porcelain, resulting in sculptural vessels that are influenced by the high desert landscape of northern New Mexico. The pieces evoke eroded desert land forms and ancient cliff dwellings. 

Artist Statement

I form my porcelain pieces by hand and then pinch, twist, and distort them—what begins as a vessel becomes sculptural. I carve this altered shape to refine it and reveal an organic form. Within the parameters of this slow and meditative process my work unfolds and evolves. I took inspiration from sea forms, shells, and ocean creatures. These pieces shifted to ones evoking erosion and decay. My Connector series explored how forms may be part of a whole yet distinct, prompted by the ideas of birth, motherhood, and separation. These pieces led me to new work as a result of time spent in the high desert of northern New Mexico. These mirage-like works subtly shift shape, and their surfaces suggest arroyo beds or rivulets etched into sandy hillsides.

Porcelain, pure white and translucent, provides me with the continuing challenge I seek for my work to stay fresh. I need to have my hands in it. Pinching, manipulating, and carving porcelain allows me to discover what I’m thinking and feeling about my surroundings. For me, it is powerful and grounding when the right form emerges to match this vision.