“ WAKE THE SNAKE”

Born to Italian parents, the Swiss artist is self taught in the ceramics discipline. Her first solo exhibition at Friedman Benda gallery investigates the spectrum from abstraction to figuration—realizing intuitive renditions of familiar objects and human forms. We fell in love with her work as there isa playful type of familiarity -do you remember the sculptor mother character Delia Deitz in Beetlejuice? I can imagine each of Carmen’s beautiful objects turn to life, magically like in the film. She lives and works in Los Angeles since 2014.

Carmen tell us your greatest inspirations or influences? 

• My grandmother. She was super creative and not afraid of anything. 

• Other things that inspire me: nature, friends, architecture, craft horizons magazine, Karin Larsson,

• Omega workshop (Bloomsbury Group)

Tell us a bit about your creative process?

I get up between 6-7am, go walk my dog Dino, drive to my studio, have a coffee and a cigarette, then take a bag of clay and start coiling forms that I have in my mind. Or I go through my sketch books and see if there is a form that I think is interesting and then I start working. I worked on two solo shows this year: a March show at Linn Lühn in Dusseldorf and at Friedman Benda in New York.

How has this year changed your creativity?

I’m very lucky that I was still able to work in my studio the past year. I just keep up working and try to stay positive.

Icon of our time?

I don’t see myself as I icon. I just follow my heart and try to make the best out of every situation, if it’s good or bad.

Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so how do you feel it can improve?

I see myself more as a maker than an artist. I prefer to let artists decide if they want to change anything in the art world. 

What does wellbeing mean to you?

Try to make the best out of your life and follow your dreams. 

Carmen D’Apollonio