In sculptures and drawings focused on animal forms, Broz reconstructs cultural kitsch to create new narratives that welcome the subversive and absurd. Strange World centers on three new maximalist sculptures created with hundreds of pieces of ceramic figurines collected over the past decade. These works are visually overwhelming and darkly optimistic, synthesizing the confusion of limitless information with moments of clarity, humor, and beauty. In the largest work, The Weight of the World, parts of ceramic animal figurines produced by numerous makers over decades are chaotically yet thoughtfully organized into an ellipsoid form resting atop the back of a turtle expressing the artist’s inclination that everything exists—in some way—forever. 

Alongside these larger works, Broz has created a new series of her altered figurines and a series of drawings on mismatched thrifted plates called Night Creatures. Broz started making the drawings early in 2024 as an exercise in spontaneity, to create a mental separation from her perfectionist restoration technique. She made them with oven-bake porcelain craft paints like the ones popularized by women who were “china painting” hobbyists after their forcible return to domestic spaces in the post-World War II era. Like women before her, she finds a type of freedom in the confines of the plate. 

In Strange World, Broz relies on the constant tension between the aesthetics of excess and the satisfaction of the simple gesture. Using humor, form, and subversion, Broz plants ideas about power hierarchies, sustainability, the crafting of origin stories, internet and meme culture, and the significance of craft, hobby, and decoration. 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Debra Broz creates sculptures that twist cultural norms and create new narratives meant to express delight in the uncanny, sentimental, and absurd. Broz grew up in rural Missouri and received her BFA with honors from Maryville University - St. Louis in 2003. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Austin, Texas where she trained as a ceramics restorer and began using ceramic figurines in her art practice. Broz moved to Los Angeles in 2014, and then to Seattle, Washington in 2022. She has shown her work with multiple galleries and museums including the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Austin Museum of Art, and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Her work has been featured in print in Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, and Frankie magazines; in a number of online publications; and in two international surveys of contemporary ceramics. In addition to her art practice, Broz owns a ceramics restoration business; has served as a board member and advisor for art nonprofits in Austin and Los Angeles; and has been involved with several artist-run spaces over the course of her career. She lives in Seattle with her partner, dog and cat.