Working with ceramics: an interview with artist Roman Tverdokhlebov

Hi everyone! Welcome to issue 30 of #ourstudents — a series of interviews in which our participants talk about themselves and their art.

Today we’re with Roman Tverdokhlebov — an artist who lives and works in Moscow and is part of our new intake. Through carefully considered experiments he makes instantly recognisable work, ranging across materials from ceramics to large-scale metal sculpture, and taking in wall frescoes, painting, sculpture and installation.

Tell us about your art: what media do you work with? And why ceramics in particular?

I work with all sorts of media — polystyrene foam, metal, mosaic and more — but ceramics is the one closest to me. It lets me experiment freely while pushing technical boundaries and making things that feel right to me aesthetically. About 13 years ago I fired my first sculpture; the result thrilled me, and my interest in ceramics has only grown since. That’s when I began to see what was possible.

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Do you have a particular approach to ceramics? A method of your own? Tell us more about it.

It all starts with an idea. The approach varies: it might be a pragmatic use of materials, or an experiment within certain limits where I rely entirely on myself and my instinct — on how I want it to look and what effect I want it to have. First comes preparation, gathering information, analysis. I enjoy learning something new every time about the technology, about firing methods, about glazes. I try to push materials to the edge of what they can do, sometimes right outside traditional technique.

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How much time do you spend in the studio? Show us your space 🤍

I spend a lot of time in the studio. It’s very hard to leave a piece unfinished, but you have to rest too. Right now I work out of friendly residencies, making my objects there depending on the technical demands and the scale. We have two sites, which I call the fireclay engineering shop and the porcelain works.

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Historically it was feminist artists who “brought ceramics back” into art. Do you think that gendered dimension still exists in the community? How do you feel in that context as a male ceramicist?

I can see that a lot of women artists are working with ceramics right now, but contexts and things like that don’t bother me — I feel completely free here. Feminism has never interested me.

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Do you think women and men approach ceramics differently? Looking at a large body of work in this medium, would you say that divide exists?

I think there are certain trends right now, regardless of gender. It all comes down to the individual artist. What interests me is what people are making in general and how they see the world. I don’t set out to analyze and classify gender differences in ceramics, or in art as a whole. I’m interested in more fundamental questions.
But if I go by what I observe, women may well be more active than men in working with ceramics in art right now. Technically the approach is largely the same; what matters more here is the presentation.

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Which ceramic artists on the international scene do you follow?

Andrew Lord is the first name that comes to mind.

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Beyond ceramics, what else shapes your artistic language?

I look at ceramics as a sculptor and a monumentalist, but I also draw on a wide range of other experience: bronze casting, restoration, painting, working with wood and stone and many other materials and techniques. Even music — I’ve played for years and have a few EPs. Whenever I get the chance I happily lose myself in that process, and I think it definitely shapes how I perceive things. I’d say what shapes my artistic language most is a love of classical art and architecture, of the archaic and of minimalism. Soviet heritage with its brutalist aesthetic left its mark on me too. I grew up in the 1990s in Orekhovo-Borisovo, and that left a certain imprint on how I see the world. Being an artist from an early age among people who don’t understand, on a DNA level, why art exists at all was not easy. But being an artist in that environment was an art form in itself 🙂

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What themes do you explore in your art? How did you arrive at them?

I’m interested in the duality of existence: the different ways we can perceive everything, how we understand our place in the world, what we choose to follow. When the idea for the project “Museum of Post-Apocalyptic Archaeology” first came to me, I started by asking myself fundamental questions whose answers, I thought, ought to be obvious. The trigger was how fast the world — and my own life — had started changing over the past five years. It was a kind of therapy session with myself. That’s how the concept was born, and it was a pivotal moment in getting to know myself.

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What matters most to you in art — in your own work and in art generally?

I think art should make you look at it, even if that brings confusion or bewilderment. If you’re looking, you’re already feeling something (assuming you don’t just walk past), but it matters more if it makes you think, study it, get inside it. There has to be an atmosphere you can sink into.

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What does a work need to have to grab you and stay with you?

For me it’s the idea. Right now it’s hard to point to anything specific, because it could be anything. I think it’s first of all the artist’s mental construction, their way of communicating with the viewer, their artistic language. But what can really impress is monumentality, technical ambition, singularity.

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What would you say have been the most significant moments in your career?

I think the significant moments in my career are still ahead of me. But the first important one was undoubtedly my solo show.

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What are your plans for the near future?

Right now I’m making objects for a big exhibition of mine. I won’t say more yet, but the project is under way. It takes a lot of time. All of it is part of a project I’m actively scaling up and bringing into physical form.

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Has our program been useful to you? If so, how?

For me it’s a very convenient, intuitive source of information with a wealth of detailed lectures and case studies. A special thank you to Maria for the engaging, methodical way she presents the material, draws you into the process and supports you. That matters a lot.