James Rigler
James Rigler works in clay and other everyday materials to create familiar but ambiguous objects and environments. He is concerned with the gap between the ordinary and the extraordinary: why some objects and places are celebrated while others are ignored, whether this is reconciled with our own experience of the world, and how even mundane things gain meaning through familiarity.
Stealing details from architectural forms and decoration, Rigler’s work collides references to the everyday with the monumental, often playing with visual similarities between disparate sources. By challenging the usual signifiers of the hierarchy of objects, his work seeks to question the values that lie behind such distinctions.
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James Rigler (b. New Zealand) lives and works in Glasgow and London. He completed an MA in Ceramics & Glass, Royal College of Art, London in 2007 since then he has gone on to exhibit his work nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include The Fading City Marsden Woo Gallery, London (2013), The Lost World Marsden Woo Gallery, London (2011), and Room Service, Pollok House (National Trust for Scotland) & The Lighthouse Centre for Design and Architecture, Glasgow (2012/13). He was a selected artist for the Jerwood Makers Open 2012 and his work has recently featured in The British Ceramics Biennial Stoke-on-Trent (2013), Modern Masters Chatsworth, Derbyshire (2013), and Perspectives: Patrons and Contemporary Objects Contemporary Applied Arts, London (2013). He has undertaken residencies at Cove Park, Argyle and Bute, Scotland (2011) and International Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark (2007) and is currently artist-in-residence at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.