Alan Dangerfield

Artist Statement

I am an artist based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I work primarily in ceramics, informed by my background in design and printmaking. My practice bridges traditional ceramic methods with techniques and sensibilities I’ve developed through years of studying design and printmaking. I am interested in how light, form, and perception shape our relationship with objects, and my work explores the shifting boundaries between realism and abstraction. Drawing on multiple disciplines, I invite viewers to examine on the meaning and materiality of each piece.



---

With The Remnant, I explored how varied glazing techniques and multiple firings shape the final surface. The vessel bears these accumulated traces, echoing the lasting and layered nature of grief.

The Remnant does not attempt to beautify grief, yet invites the viewer to sit and examine it. It’s a remnant of a past self, showing that what came before often lurks beneath our surface, no matter the layers we put between ourselves and the grief itself. It honors grief as something lived with, layered, heavy, and enduring rather than something that disappears.

On the surface is evidence of what has passed through it. Heat, pressure, and time often leave stains that run, and darkened patches seem to consume the piece's color. Its color gathers, and it falls, as our emotions often do: unevenly and unexpectedly.

Like grief, it asks to be touched rather than be resolved. The interior is quiet and unseen, while the exterior tells a story of endurance. Of standing after something has burned through.