Bobby Silverman at The Clay Studio presents an extensive body of work composed of the industrially produced ceramic tiles made commercially popular by his company Alsio Design. This Knight Arts grantee showcases Silverman’s work, which resides in a multitude of creative domains including painting, design, philosophy, language and, of course, ceramics. Through his layered approach to image-making, Silverman presents a transformative grouping of works for “Art and Industry” that both uphold and subvert the medium of clay.

Bobby Silverman, “Ponty #2.”

At first it may seem as though The Clay Studio is no place for a painting show… and that would indeed be accurate. While the luster of the rectangular tiles that make up Silverman’s exhibit could at first be mistaken for oil paint, these are not canvases at all – they merely reference the medium of abstract brushwork in the application of their glazes and their wall-mounted display. Many stand alone, much like their acrylic or watercolor cousins, but these colors are applied to commercial porcelain and then fired, giving viewers pause to upend their beliefs surrounding two-dimensional artwork.

Bobby Silverman, “Emerson.”

Many of these flat pieces contain translucent layers, and often textual elements as well. Silverman draws on his interest in philosophy and literature to provide quotations and musings about aesthetics and even the intellect, but not all of these are immediately apparent as such. In fact, the artist sometimes includes these passages in Morse code or Braille, translating recognizable characters into less obvious, but equally valid forms of communication, and otherwise transforming legible words into simple patterns in the minds of the uninitiated.

Bobby Silverman, “Untitled.”

When Silverman is not quoting Oscar Wilde, Robert Motherwell or Ralph Waldo Emerson, he is obsessive with his attention to color, light, translucency and texture. Some pieces are color fields that either fade into or blend the uppermost hues with the base coats. In a pair of highly contrasted images, red shapes send out dripping tendrils of glaze against gravity and into the enveloping bright blue field around them. Unlike the tiles named after authors, many of these expressionist renditions are untitled.

Bobby Silverman, “Alsio Design Versailles Collection-Black.”

In his other series, unbroken, repeating patterns and textures reign supreme over both color and content. Here, the sections are modular and can be placed together to encapsulate a room in the lens-like, globular bubbles or sharp pyramidal studs that form the surfaces of these tiles. This is also where Silverman embraces his namesake, coating these rigid segments in metallic gold and chrome. On a smaller scale, some of these fixtures could make for a collection of jewelry, but as it stands they are designed for interiors and not individuals.

By combining design, décor, communication and abstraction through the medium of ceramics, Bobby Silverman does well to popularize porcelain as an individual artwork or repeated motif in public places, businesses or homes. Visit The Clay Studio to reimagine Silverman’s innovative proliferation of ceramics for yourself before November 30.

The Clay Studio is located at 137-139 North 2nd St., Philadelphia; [email protected]; theclaystudio.org.