Jake Clark (b. 1985, Melbourne) lives and works in New York. Self taught, he studied horticulture at the Holmesglen Institute in Melbourne and came to clay through graffiti, having swapped pencils for spray paint as a teenager under the influence of Keith Haring's subway drawings. Finding Haring's urns and pots sent him to ceramics in high school, and his grandparents' collection of pots and sculptures was there before all of it.
He makes glossy, hyper coloured glazed vessels, amphorae, cylinders, ashtrays shaped like swimming pools, painted with the logos and signage of places that have lasted: restaurants, delis, hotels, supermarkets, sports teams, street signs, menus. The handmade finish gives them the air of memorabilia, and the references run from Grecian urns and funerary vessels to Hockney and Haring.
Solo exhibitions include Plants and Ashtrays at Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, Icônes at Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, Miami Vice at Bill Brady Gallery, Miami, Half Sandwich and Matzo Ball Soup at ATM Gallery, New York, and shows at Rodolphe Janssen in Belgium and Allouche Benias in Athens. His work has been shown at Albertz Benda and Woaw in Hong Kong, at Galería Yusto/Giner in Marbella and at Untitled Art Miami Beach, and covered by the Washington Post, W Magazine and Broadsheet.
Clark took part in the group exhibition Tutti Frutti at Plan X Milan in 2022.
