Gábor Somoskői

Kezemura

Ceramicist | Budapest, Hungary

Recommended by

Judit Osvárt

A meditative approach

Gábor is a self-taught ceramicist
He sees his work as connecting all four elements of nature
He enjoys the infinite variety of objects that can be made

Gábor Somoskői was initially into photography and worked a lot with wood, creating skateboards for years, but he always loved as a child. He started working with ceramics more seriously in 2012, when he bought his first small kiln. Today, he is happy that he can work with ceramics in his own workshop, full-time – which he considers to be a kind of meditative activity, and which he learned by doing, step by step, in a self-taught way, without any formal education. Gábor likes to see his work as a continuation of a 10,000 year-old tradition, as, to put it very simply, he makes bowls and utensils from clay in the same way as his pre-historic predecessors – but he has modern tools and ingredients to do so.

Interview

Why did you start working in this field?: I have always been attracted to creations made with two hands. I used to work with wood, too, I like to shape objects with my hands. Ceramic items have a kind of personal character that I really like. I see people attached to these objects because they are present in defining moments.
What was the first item you made?: A black gavel mug made of chamotte black clay with a white glaze. I still have this, I love its rawness. It’s very rudimentary in shape, but I see in it what I want to mould now: attachment and immersion to the material.
What techniques do you work with?: I wheel throw and trim almost every single piece. The pieces of the Goro series are made with faceting: I cut the round shapes by hand to create the form I want to see. I mix most of my glazes myself and have been experimenting a lot lately using local and collected clays.
What is a memorable moment in your career?: The first time I worked with a wood fire kiln in 2017. It is a very elementary experience to feed the fire for 12 hours and then wait. I usually work with an electric oven, which has a lot of benefits: predictable and accurate. The wood-fire technique is the opposite of everything: a much rawer technique.

Gábor Somoskői is an expert artisan: he began his career in 2013