Eva Zethraeus

Eva Zethraeus (Swedish, b. 1971) is a ceramic artist based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Working primarily in porcelain, she creates exquisite and tenuous biomorphic sculptures that are at the intersection between representational and abstract. Inspired by marine life, Japanese Zen Buddhist gardens and viruses, Zethraeus’ works examine the beauty and phenomena of life cycles and replication, and the unpredictable variances that occur. They are not only wholly realized individual objects, but they also suggest a greater context of an immersive environment. With this imagery she constructs and deconstructs intricate forms that encapsulate the complex manner in which organisms grow and evolve as well as creating a minutely detailed method that is likewise as complex. Each individual component of a piece is hand thrown; the work is then assembled and subsequently undergoes a number of glazings and firings to achieve its finished state. Zethraeus has described her approach, “My sculptures are the result of an ongoing research of form and the complicated nature of the ceramic process.”

Zethraeus received her MFA from the College for Design & Craft at Gothenburg University. She has exhibited widely nationally as well as internationally, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the Röhsska Muséet in Gothenburg.