In April 2023, Karen Swami revealed a new dimension of her artistic practice through a captivating ceramic exhibition at the Minsky Gallery in Paris. This solo show paid tribute to the influential German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, renowned for their rigorous typologies of industrial architecture. Their iconic black-and-white images of blast furnaces, water towers, and gas tanks served as a powerful source of inspiration for Swami’s latest work.

In this series, the artist reinterprets these now-vanished industrial structures through sculptural forms crafted in smoky stoneware. Her pieces echo the geometric precision and monumental stillness found in the Bechers’ photographs, yet they introduce a new materiality — one that is tactile, raw, and deeply expressive. The fired clay, with its textured surfaces and smoky tones, brings a sense of life and presence to these architectural ghosts of the past.

Transformed by fire and hand, these works are more than sculptural interpretations — they are meditations on memory, loss, and permanence. The once-static subjects of the Bechers’ silver film now find renewed expression in three-dimensional form, anchored in the earthy weight of ceramics.

This ceramic exhibition not only highlights Swami’s exceptional craftsmanship but also her ability to bridge disciplines — photography, architecture, and contemporary ceramic art — in a dialogue that is both conceptual and sensorial. The show stands as a compelling homage to industrial heritage, while affirming the vitality and relevance of ceramics as a medium for storytelling and artistic reflection.

With this exhibition, Karen Swami continues to expand the boundaries of what ceramics can express, offering viewers a poetic lens on transformation, materiality, and the fading traces of the modern world.