The artistic expression of ceramic
artist Ruan Hoffmann has steadily gained widespread and international
appeal; this by no accident though, since both his imagery and medium is
so universally accessible. His fickle remarks and poignant slogans are
the equivalent of latter-day t-shirt culture, and whilst his comments on
politics are quite colloquial, those works that refer to more generic
emotive issues find an easy audience everywhere by imbuing a sense of
intimacy. The use of ceramic plates as canvas, those ancient utilitarian
everyday objects, further enhance this element of closeness and even
though they may be misshaped and imperfect, it only strengthens the
metaphor within his work; the imperfections of humanity and himself. As
with many artists Ruan expresses his sentiments in a passionate and
direct way, but he often relies on the alchemic process of the kiln and
glazes to introduce an accidental poignancy to the work; in the shape of
a teardrop forming from some spilt glaze or a texture forming from some
unintentional combination of oxides. It is these accidents that are a
comfortable reminder that the struggle for control and predictability is
futile and suggests that we learn to perceive and appreciate the beauty
of imperfection. I strongly believe that the success of his oeuvre
derives from a very definite humanizing component; stretching across
skilled decoratively painted works, poetic text based slogans to ironic
and inadvertent self-revelations.

These videos are an introduction to his extensive body of work. Find more of his work here : http://www.ruanhoffmann.com/