José Sierra is a self-taught artist and ceramicist, born in Mérida, Venezuela in 1975. His work draws inspiration from his heritage, along with pre-Hispanic art, East Asian pottery, and contemporary design. His work teems with super-saturated colors and conflicting textures populating asymmetrical forms reminiscent of microscopic life or grand mythological icons.

“The images and memories of coffee mills, intensely colored mountains, dramatic landscapes, pre-Colombian art, and architecture of the Andean region of Venezuela... as well as the geometry of the Catalina Mountains. The range of textures and colors of the Andes and Catalinas also inform my palette of glazes and engobes, which are achieved through high-firing in oxidation and reduction. My work fuses organic and geometric forms, in which I express both the fluidity and abruptness of the shapes and lines in the landscapes and architecture that surrounds me.” -Artist Statement