With her porcelain vessels—serving bowls, candle holders, and vases—Beirut-based ceramicist Nathalie Khayat (b. 1966; Beirut, Lebanon) subverts the expectations of her delicate material of choice. Deeply invested in the unique material properties of clay itself, Khayat produces work that references the inherently organic properties of clay. The sensual, undulating forms of her work—often reminiscent of coral growing from the floor of the sea—are a product of the artist’s experiments with accidents and chance. Evoking the dualities of the natural world—of violence and calm, of growth and decay, of life and death—Khayat’s ceramics represent a foray into a beautiful unknown.
Khayat’s work has been exhibited widely in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, and is included in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Khayat studied ceramics at the Centre de Ceramique Bonsecours, Montreal, Canada and at The Visual Arts Centre, Montreal Canada. The artist lives and works in Beirut and Montreal.