A NEW DIRECTION: Jeff Suina’s Ceramic Explorations

It is often extremely difficult for an artist to create something completely new.  Frequently, if he or she changes direction the new work may not be embraced by collectors, curators, and the public at large.  For Pueblo ceramic artists the issue is even more complicated since there is a strong emphasis on cultural and family traditions.  For such artists exploring new forms, techniques, and materials can be artistically risky since they might garner the disapproval of their Pueblo and, more importantly, their own family.  However, artistic norms for Pueblo ceramic artists have changed and continue to evolve because of pioneers such as Jody Folwell, Susan Folwell, Virgil Ortiz, Christine Nofchissey McHorse, Nathan Begaye, Diego Romero, Hubert Candelario and Al Qöyawayma.  As a collector, I am always excited when an artist takes his or her medium in a new direction.  This was the case when I saw five new works by Jeff Suina on the King Galleries website on December 19, 2023.   Although I have been collecting ceramic art since the early 1980s, I had never before seen anything like these unusual ceramic vessels.  This prompted an immediate email exchange between myself and Charles King.  In his first email to me at 3:30 PM (EST) Charles wrote the following: “I’ve been after Jeff for some of his really creative angular pieces but I never liked the surface.  We talked a lot after Market about ways to improve his work, and I think he did!  The white is better, they aren’t as smokey and I like the end result. . . .  I like that he is thoughtful about what he is doing.”   Less than two hours later, Charles wrote, “Jeff had the same internship in ABQ this past year that Jared Tso had last year.  He finished just a couple of 3D printed pieces and they have been in a museum exhibit. I really wanted to have a GREAT 3D printed piece in the gallery.  Jeff’s are really good.  And I liked the contrast of color/style/design in his traditional and 3D printed pieces.  IT’s actually interesting how much time it takes to actually make a piece turn out, and it is a different creative skill set.”

After careful consideration, I chose two pieces: Obsidian Geometric Polychrome Vase, which was handmade from native clay and native fired, and Vulcan Geometric Vase, which was created with a combination of hands-on work and a 3D printer using commercial clays and pigment.  In a number of emails during the course of correspondence, when I wavered Charles suggested that I acquire both Obsidian and Vulcan and stated a number of times, “There is a REALLY great story there in the two pieces.”  I wrote back and asked, “Would you mind briefly expanding on what you mean by ‘a really great story?’”  “I guess it’s less a literal story than a visual story,” Charles responded and added, “To create the pieces in native clay and to create something equally time involved with the 3d printing.  I think they make an interesting pair and an interesting story of evolution of native pottery and art.”

  “Obsidian” Geometric Polychrome Vase by Jeff Suina, Cochiti Pueblo, natural clay, slip, and paint, 5”w x 8.25”h (2023).  Collection of E. J. Guarino.  Images courtesy of King Galleries.

          With its audacious geometric angles and bold painted designs, Jeff Suina’s Obsidian Geometric Polychrome Vase is a fearless change of direction from traditional pottery produced at Cochiti Pueblo and, for that matter, at any Southwest Pueblo.  Though Cochiti ceramic artist Virgil Ortiz has veered from conventional forms and imagery, what Jeff Suina has produced is something else again.  According to Suina, many of his polygonal creations are inspired by angularities found in Nature.  In fact, Obsidian is informed by the volcanic glass that is produced when lava cools quickly after it is spewed from a volcano.     In addition to its eye-catching, radically sharp angles, Obsidian’s painted designs combine to great a work that is nothing less than hypnotic.  To create the work’s patterns the artist gathered and process natural clay to form the piece and make the slip to cover it as well as cooking native spinach to make the black paint used for the patterns. The piece was fired in the traditional manner.

The overwhelming majority of ceramics produced by Pueblo potters is hand coiled, employs native clays and paints that are hand-gathered, and the pieces are traditionally fired.  Early on, deviating from even one of these ancient conventions was shocking.  To break from all of these practices would have been anathema to Pueblo people.  That is no longer the case, though most Pueblo potters do continue to follow the unwritten rules.  However, in a number of his new pieces Jeff Suina has not only broken with tradition, some might say that he has shattered it.  A case in point is the artist’s Vulcan Geometric Vase.

“Vulcan” Geometric Vase by Jeff Suina, Cochiti Pueblo, commercial clays and pigments, hand and 3D printer, 7”w x 11”h (2023).  Collection of E. J. Guarino.

Like Jeff Suina’s Obsidian Geometric Polychrome Vase, his Vulcan Geometric Vase has sharp, unexpected angles and polychrome designs.  The similarity ends there.   Vulcan was created by Jeff Suina during a residency at the Hand and Machine Lab at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in July 2023. According to the artist, this piece was “born in Blender 3D modeling software and with a 3D clay printer. . . .  then smoothed and refined . . . by hand. . . .”  The designs, which were Suina’s own invention but influenced by those of Cochiti Pueblo, were then applied using commercial paints.  Vulcan is the second of Suina’s pieces on which he used Musou Black. the darkest black paint available commercially.  He stated that this black is “startlingly mesmerizing to gaze at and added, “Vulcan is aggressive and dangerous, a tribute to active volcanoes all over the earth.”  That Jeff Suina used commercial clays and pigments for Vulcan is not unheard of.  However, the use of a 3D printer by a Pueblo artist to produce a piece of pottery is and it is boldly signed “Jeff Suina, Cochiti, Hand and Machine, 2023.”

Little did I foresee that some six months later, on July 1st, 2024, I would acquire Temple, another of Jeff Suina’s astounding geometric creations. Each of the piece’s four sides offers something visually dazzling and unexpected.

Jeff Suina used the slab-built technique to create the flat sides of Temple. There are square shapes folded into more squares making this piece among the artist’s most angular. One of the flat sections even has a little “window” cut into it. Even Charles King was amazed by this, writing “. . . it’s the little window that does me in on this piece!  Who thinks of that…and all the angles.  It’s so strong.”
The painted designs are all variations of classic Cochiti sun, rain, and lightning imagery. The imagery harmonizes with the sharply angular shapes of the piece. Suina used the angular shapes of the piece to harmonize with the lines of the imagery across the surface.  The contrasting positive and negative spaces are visually striking.

Writing about this piece, the artist stated: “Robust and concise, Temple is one of my most recent explorations in geometric design where the final outcome is architectural,” Suina said of this piece and further added, “I looked to my 3D modeling background as inspiration to join 2 primitive solid shapes into one majestic vessel that looks futuristic and ancient at the same time”

According to his website, Jeff Suina draws inspiration from a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, quantum theory, philosophy, science fiction, architecture, J.R.R. Tolkien, and parametric design.  Looking at his newest work, this is not hard to believe.  Clearly, Suina is an artist with a great deal on his mind and it shows in his art.  Although he creates traditional and non-traditional work, it is his unconventional pieces that most appeal to me since they expand the limits of ceramic art.  Other Pueblo ceramic artists opened a door and Jeff Suina has been courageous enough to go through it.