Alana Salcer

Alana Salcer is a Brooklyn-based ceramic artist and graphic designer whose work moves between the functional and the wearable, the still and the alive. Rooted in a close attention to natural form and shaped by years of travel, her practice spans sculptural vessels, bookends, pipes, and jewelry. Her organic vase series begins with the real thing — ginger root, parsnips, artichokes, heirloom tomatoes, radishes, fennel — each piece cast directly from the vegetable itself, preserving the wildness and unpredictability of a single specimen. The series extends into ginger-formed pipes and pea pod necklaces and pins. Her bookend series takes animal forms and abstracts them into objects that are sculptural and quietly playful, drawing on the charm of folk art and vintage toys. Her jewelry draws from geology, landscape, and the objects that civilizations leave behind — broken pottery, artifacts, and the visual languages of indigenous cultures and mid-century art and design. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Salcer brings a graphic designer’s eye for surface and composition to every piece.

Alana Lauren Ceramics are inspired by geology, wild flora, artifacts and ecofacts that one lucky explorer might find and treasure. My jewelry pieces are one of a kind and have a subtle, earthy elegance that compliments any outfit. My latest collection of planters is inspired by trips to the local market. I love the idea of combining living plants with vessels that celebrate these fascinating natural forms that nourish our bodies. I draw my inspiration for ceramics from nature's formations and decay. On long walks through the catskill mountains, the shores of the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean or my local park in Brooklyn, I collect lichen, wild plants, shells and rocks to immortalize in porcelain fossils. The unpredictable nature of clay, glaze and minerals in a high fire kiln provides the perfect environment for the exploration of organic forms and textures. I am an art director, graphic designer and educator born and raised by designers in Brooklyn, New York. I have always been a passionate collector of jewelry and accessories by local designers both from New York and the various cities and countries to which I have traveled. Never one to follow trends, I enjoy wearing unique statement pieces that I feel are an extension of my personality. Having experimented in jewelry making from a young age – including medium such as paper, metal, acrylic paint, leather, various beads, fabric and fibers – I have found an abundance of inspiration through my work in ceramics since 2011.