LEAH KAPLAN STUDIO
Leah Kaplan has been working in clay for 30 years, honing her skills in studios and schools in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. In 2018, Leah renovated space in a converted 19th century glass factory from which she launched her full time practice. Her eclectic career path to ceramics included promoting New York City designers, as well as safeguarding indigenous craft traditions. In the latter job, Leah was fortunate to meet gifted artisans, engaged in every conceivable medium, whose work continues to inform her own. Leah’s vessels have been shown in internationally juried shows across the United States.
Beyond her studio practice, Leah devotes time to The Clay Studio, a national nonprofit arts organization, on whose board she serves.
Born in Kansas City and raised in Minnesota, Leah lives in Philadelphia with her husband and three children.
Artist Statement
Leah Kaplan explores movement, texture and translucency through sculptural vessels. Engaged exclusively in porcelain, employing only clear glaze or no glaze at all, Leah probes and pushes the material’s unique properties by experimenting with different hand-building methods. Each way of working -- pressing, rolling, draping, layering -- has its own particular rhythm and feel, altering how she experiences and interacts with a piece. Some methods require meticulousness; others are fast and loose. Some techniques demand concentration, like a high wire act, while other approaches allow her mind to drift and her hands to take over. In the end, it is this iterative process — driven by intent and intuition — from which Leah’s work emerges. Each piece is a material expression of tension and balance amidst competing impulses.
