UAE art in 2016 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale

Dubai-based Irish artist and designer Michael Rice’s ceramic artwork “Coriolis” has been selected for the 2016 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale to be held from June 15 to December 15 in Taipei, World Design Capital for 2016. The smoke-fired piece was chosen from among hundreds of works submitted by ceramics artists from around the world.

Rice is associate professor of studio art at the American University in Dubai and has recently been elected a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, the only international association devoted to the medium of clay. Besides having his work selected for the Biennale, he is also among the four finalists of the Van Cleef & Arpels Middle East Emergent Designer Prize for this year.

The colours, textures and organic forms of his ceramic artworks are inspired by nature. “When I look at a shell on the beach or a stone made beautiful by the endless caress of the tide, I am awed by the skill of nature. I long to make things that look as if nature has made them, to create objects that resonate with a timeless quality, with a feeling of a genesis beyond the constructed and manufactured. I always try to create sculptures, surfaces and textures that are difficult to date to a specific culture or place,” he says.

The artist recently worked on an interesting art project with his students, which is currently displayed on the campus. Using more than 3,000 balloons, they created an image of legendary singer Umm Kulthum. “My university recently got a donation of thousands of balloons, and we wanted to find an innovative way of using them. When I suggested that we make a portrait of an Arab icon, my students chose Umm Kulthum. The words on the portrait — ‘enta omri’ meaning ‘you are my life’ are taken from one of her songs, and aptly describe what she means to generations of Arabs,” he says.