For sculptor Han Chiao, nothing beautiful is as easy as it seems. Working in black clay, the Paris-based artist’s ease for sensuality finds a primordial edge. The romance of a curve may be startled by sharp protrusions, symmetrical forms are tilted by surreal proportions, and subtly mottled, organic glazing is sharpened by her precision of line. This pulsing interplay of contradictions reveals truths, making abstract portraits of life itself.

Starting from a drawing of a shape or simply with a physical impulse, Han Chiao first spins a symmetrical form, leaving room for experimentation once the clay has slightly dried, when she then begins the process of deformation. Here, she slowly and intuitively reworks the pieces until they’re liberated from the façade of perfection. Honoring the texture of the earth she chooses to work with, the clay is left rough, marked with the gestures of her body and, occasionally her own fingerprints. Glazing, when employed, is done sparingly, in thin, dripping washes of white that evade artifice.

The honesty available through ceramics is what drew Han Chiao to the medium. A career fashion photographer working under her western name, Naomi Yang, she first put her hands on clay in 2017 and became a quick study. Her honed eye for shape, color, and composition found freedom in working alone, creating without the expectation of an audience. The practice, which she does daily and for as many hours as her schedule allows, is a conduit for revealing herself, a homecoming which invited her return to the name she was born with in Taiwan, Han Chiao.